Gratitude

In his final days, renowned neurologist and author Oliver Sacks reflects on his remarkable life with profound gratitude and poignant insight.

Oliver Sacks died in August 2015 at his home in Greenwich Village, surrounded by his close friends and family. He was 82. He spent his final days doing what he loved: playing the piano, swimming, enjoying smoked salmon – and writing . . .

In a series of beautifully written and uplifting meditations, Dr Sacks reflects on and gives thanks for a life well lived, expressing his thoughts on growing old, facing terminal cancer and reaching the end.

I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and travelled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.

In Gratitude, the late Oliver Sacks offers a profound meditation on the human experience, the passage of time, and the gift of life itself. A moving testament to a brilliant mind and a life well lived.