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The Instant New York Times best seller!Riveting. ... [Marsh] gives us an extraordinarily intimate, compassionate and sometimes frightening understanding of his vocation. - The New York TimesWinner of the PEN Ackerley PrizeShortlisted for both the Guardian First Book Prize and the Costa Book AwardLonglisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-FictionA Finalist for the Pol Roger Duff Cooper PrizeA Finalist for the Wellcome Book PrizeA Financial Times Best Book of the YearAn Economist Best Book of the YearWhat is it like to be a brain surgeon? How does it feel to hold someone's life in your hands, to cut into the stuff that creates thought, feeling, and reason? How do you live with the consequences of performing a potentially lifesaving operation when it all goes wrong?In neurosurgery, more than in any other branch of medicine, the doctor's oath to "do no harm" holds a bitter irony.