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Adventures in Human Being

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About this listen

We have a lifetime's association with our bodies, but for many of us they remain uncharted territory.

In Adventures in Human Being, Gavin Francis leads the listener on a journey through health and illness, offering insights on everything from the ribbed surface of the brain to the secret workings of the heart and the womb; from the pulse of life at the wrist to the unique engineering of the foot.

Drawing on his own experiences as a doctor and GP, he blends firsthand case studies with reflections on the way the body has been imagined and portrayed over the millennia. If the body is a foreign country, then to practise medicine is to explore new territory: Francis leads the listener on an adventure through what it means to be human.

Both a user's guide to the body and a celebration of its elegance, this audiobook will transform the way you think about being alive, whether in sickness or in health.

Gavin Francis is an award-winning writer and doctor and a contributor to The Guardian, The New York Review of Books and London Review of Books.

©2015 Gavin Francis (P)2016 Audible, Ltd Biological Sciences Science Heartfelt

Critic reviews

"A sober and beautiful book about the landscape of the human body: thought-provoking and eloquent." (Hilary Mantel)
"Wonderful, subtle, unpretentious...produces a kind of complicity between the author, the reader, and the subject." (John Berger)
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Would you listen to Adventures in Human Being again? Why?

I really enjoyed the narrator of this book as well as the content. A really enjoyable read and I finished it in two sittings. Recommended if you enjoy medicine.

What about Thomas Judd’s performance did you like?

I really like his performance and his easy to listen to voice.

Very enjoyable read!

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Highly, highly recommend this book. A clever mix of history, superstition and anecdotes. As a student nurse I found this style to be incredibly informative and enjoyable.

Fantastic

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What is here is good, is fine, is clever and well-put, but it is a bitty book and not wholly satisfying or well-shaped. There are better books on similar themes - 'Gut' for example, and, not on Audible, the essays of Gonzalez-Crussi - but the reading is clear and expressive, and there is something in every chapter to consider and surprise.

More adventure?

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A clear journey through the body from head to toe, describing the wonderful workings of the human body. Highly recommended!

Brilliant

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I really enjoyed it. I thought it was like the
James heriot of human medicine. Very interesting facts and engaging moving human stories

Super book

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