From the author of the National Book Award-winning How We Die comes a blend of "fascinating stories...about human anatomy and the surgeon's complicated profession" (Chicago Tribune).

Dr. Sherwin Nuland, "a gifted and deeply intelligent writer" (San Francisco Chronicle), combines knowledge, compassion, and elegance of expression to shed light on the workings of our bodies from the perspective of a surgeon. Dr. Nuland recounts age-old legends about the functions and "personalities" of the body's organs and, in riveting vignettes of the surgery he has performed, he describes the connections between myth and reality.

A brilliant blend of science and folklore, The Mysteries Within reveals the enigmas not only of the body but also of the human imagination.