Street neurologist with a sense of wonder

In an interview in his Greenwich Village, New York, office. Oliver M Sacks seems to closely resemble Robin Williams’portrayal of him in the 1990 film Awakenings. The 63-year-old neurologist and author of seven books fidgets in his seat, strokes his grey beard, and jumps up frequently to adjust the window or get some amusing object from another room. His most recent book The Island of the Color Blind, is both travel essay and neurological studies. On the Micronesian islands of Pinegelap, Guam, and Rota, Sacks explores cases of achromatopsia and lytico-bodig, as well as the islands’botany; the primitive cycad trees are a special interest of his. For Sacks, these visits are “house calls”. Sacks’previous books include the international best-sellers The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars; his work has also been the basis of plays and an opera.