The Sleeping Beauties

And Other Stories of Mystery Illness

De: Suzanne O'Sullivan

Narrado por: Suzanne O'Sullivan

Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize.

In Sweden, refugee children fall asleep for months and years at a time. In Upstate New York, high school students develop contagious seizures. In the US embassy in Cuba, employees complain of headaches and memory loss after hearing strange noises in the night.

These disparate cases are some of the most remarkable diagnostic mysteries of the 21st century, as both doctors and scientists have struggled to explain them within the boundaries of medical science and—more crucially—to treat them. What unites them is that they are all examples of a particular type of psychosomatic illness: medical disorders that are influenced as much by the idiosyncratic aspects of individual cultures as they are by human biology.

Inspired by a poignant encounter with the sleeping refugee children of Sweden, Wellcome Prize-winning neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan travels the world to visit other communities who have also been subject to outbreaks of so-called ‘mystery’ illnesses.

From a derelict post-Soviet mining town in Kazakhstan, to the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua via an oil town in Texas, to the heart of the Maria Mountains in Colombia, O’Sullivan hears remarkable stories from a fascinating array of people and attempts to unravel their complex meaning while asking the question: who gets to define what is and what isn’t an illness?

Reminiscent of the work of Oliver Sacks, Stephen Grosz and Henry Marsh, The Sleeping Beauties is a moving and unforgettable scientific investigation with a very human face.

©2021 Suzanne O'Sullivan (P)2021 Macmillan Publishers International Ltd

Reseñas de la Crítica

"In my view the best science writer around—a true descendant of Oliver Sacks." (Sathnam Sanghera, author of The Boy with the Topknot)

"It is in every sense, mind-blowing." (Daily Telegraph)

"Neurologist Suzanne O'Sullivan takes us on a tour of puzzling and seemingly inexplicable illnesses, including a sleeping sickness that affects refugee children in Sweden, severe headaches afflicting embassy staff in Cuba and mass outbreaks of fainting among Colombian schoolgirls. It's utterly fascinating, and told with extraordinary compassion." (Alex Fowler, Financial Times)

"A study of diseases that we sometimes say are 'all in the mind', and an explanation of how unfair that characterisation is." (Tom Whipple, The Times Books of the Year)