The Echo Maker by Richard PowersLiterary fiction, Hardcover, 464 pages
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2006)
Lots of suspense with well-developed characters. A man suffers Capgras syndrome after an accident. His brain cannot match his visual and intellectual identifications with his emotional ones. He insists that the woman who claims to be his sister is an impostor. She consults a national expert on neurology to solve this dilemma, while the accident victim continues to reject her and waits for his "real sister" to show up. His sister is the only family he has. The clinical details are fascinating and Powers makes them as easy to understand as Oliver Sacks would. Local bird sanctuaries also figure prominently in the story and have much to tell us. Powers writes beautifully. I defy anyone to read the first few paragraphs here and not want to read this book. An excellent story. This novel is a National Book Award winner and a Pultzer Prize finalist. Four and a half stars out of five. Highly recommended.
