Billy's Halo. Love, Science And My Father's Death

Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: Very Good
Publisher: Doubleday
Publisher Place: London
Publisher Year: 2006
Edition: First Edition

Description: 308 pages. Book and Jacket are both in Very good condition throughout. The only exception are a few light age markings on the page edges.

Publishers Description: Science is just one way of looking at life. As a neuroscientist working at the forefront of medical research, it is Ruth McKernans way. For a while, it was her father Billys too; science was a language they shared. When Billy succumbed to a mystery illness and slipped from consciousness into coma, Ruth watched his life ebb away with a mixture of love and terror. She struggled for control by using her scientific knowledge to analyse and understand his medical condition. Billy had been a demanding father, the postmans son who became a self-made success - but it took his collapse for Ruth to realize just how intense her feelings were for him. Now, she tells the story of her fathers last year as a collection of cutting-edge scientific themes - memory, consciousness, microbes, stem cells - like pearls strung together on the thread of her fathers life. The result is an inspired blending of personal emotion, love and grief, with a crystal-clear scientific explanation of the way our brains and bodies work in sickness and in health.

ISBN: 9780385608558