Gratitud
(Book)

Originally appeared in The New York Times as follows: "Mercury" as "The Joy of Old Age" (July 6, 2013), "My Own Life" (February 19, 2015), "My Periodic Table" (July 24, 2015), and "Sabbath" (August 14, 2015)."

"A beautiful--in both its content and production--and deeply moving testimony and celebration of how to embrace life, and face death with grace and joy, by the beloved Oliver Sacks. Before his death in summer 2015 at the age of 82, Oliver Sacks announced his own coming death from cancer to the public in 4 beautifully written, eloquent pieces he published in The New York Times. The heartfelt response from readers across the world was immediate. Gratitude gathers those pieces together in a beautifully produced, small tribute book that is as inspiring as it is insightful. In July 2013, Oliver Sacks turned eighty and wrote an eloquent piece in The New York Times about the prospect of old age and the freedom he envisioned for himself in binding together the thoughts and feelings of a lifetime. Eighteen months later, he was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer--which he announced publically in another piece in The New York Times. Gratitude is Sacks's meditation on why life continues to enthrall him even as he faces the all-too-close presence of his own death, and how to live out the months that remain in the richest and deepest way possible. It's an impassioned statement about the joy of being a sentient being and the pleasures he continues to find from his intercourse with the world, as well as a meditation that readers of all ages will cherish and re-read for the comfort and wisdom it provides."--,Provided by English edition publisher.