"Extraordinary on first reading, even more so on a second . . . the sort of book one wants to pick up again and again." --Oliver Sacks "Lively and erudite." --The New York Times Book Review "Gonzalez-Crussi writes essays that fuse science, literature, and personal history into highly civilized artifacts. Here are five such pieces...all of them informative, none of them predictable." --The Washington Post "A meditation on sensory experience by a Mexican-born pathologist who weaves personal experiences with history, science, philosophy and theology for a wide-ranging approach to our centuries-old but undissipated curiosity about the origins of pain and pleasure.... An erudite work." --Los Angeles Times Book Review