And Finally: A Neurosurgeons Reflections on Life

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From the bestselling neurosurgeon and author of Do No Harm, an unflinching and deeply personal exploration of death, life and neuroscience. 'Magnificent.' Rachel Clarke 'A book to treasure and reread; I'm very grateful for it.' Gavin Francis As a neurosurgeon, I lived in a world filled with fear and suffering, death and cancer. But rarely, if ever, did I think about what it would be like if what I witnessed at work every day happened to me. This book is the story of how I became a patient myself. As a retired brain surgeon, Henry Marsh thought he understood illness, but he was unprepared for the impact of his diagnosis of advanced cancer. And Finally explores what happens when someone who has spent a lifetime on the frontline of life and death finds himself contemplating what might be his own death sentence. As he navigates the bewildering transition from doctor to patient, he is haunted by past failures and projects yet to be completed, and frustrated by the inconveniences of illness and old age. But he is also more entranced than ever by the mysteries of science and the brain, the beauty of the natural world and his love for his family. Elegiac, candid, luminous and poignant, And Finally is ultimately not so much a book about death, but a book about life and what matters in the end.

Reviews

And Finally is a close and courageous look at the prospect of death by someone who has seen it more clearly and more often than most of us, and who writes with great fluency and grace. Henry Marsh is a great neurosurgeon: he is also a very fine writer. I admire this book enormously. -- Philip Pullman, author of HIS DARK MATERIALS
[And Finally] is unexpectedly fun, and the author is pretty much irresistibly likeable... diagnoses and remissions are described with wonderful candour... [and Marsh's] discussion of end-of-life care and assisted dying is the best essay I have read on the subject. * Guardian *
Henry Marsh may have retired from medicine but let's hope he keeps producing books as good as this one, which enthral as well as teach. * Observer *
A beautifully written collection of memories, thoughts and life lessons... And Finally will no doubt prompt others to contemplate their own existence and, more importantly, recognise what is truly worth living for. * Financial Times *
[Marsh is] deeply reflective, the result is a bit like sitting in the pub with the smartest person you know. * Spectator *

Author Bio

Henry Marsh is a retired neurosurgeon and the bestselling author of Do No Harm and Admissions. Both books were Sunday Times No. 1 bestsellers, and have been translated into over thirty languages. Do No Harm was awarded the South Bank Sky Arts Award and the PEN Ackerley Prize, and was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award, Duff Cooper Prize, Wellcome Book Prize and Guardian First Book Award. Marsh was made CBE is 2010. Since retiring from full-time work in the NHS in 2015, he continued to operate and lecture abroad. He is married to the anthropologist Kate Fox, and lives in London and Oxford.