Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me

4.5
based on 1379 ratings

About this book

Bill Hayes came to New York City in 2009 with a one-way ticket and only the vaguest idea of how he would get by. But, at forty-eight years old, having spent decades in San Francisco, he craved change. Grieving over the death of his partner, he quickly discovered the profound consolations of the city's incessant rhythms, the sight of the Empire State Building against the night sky, and New Yorkers themselves, kindred souls that Hayes, a lifelong insomniac, encountered on late-night strolls with his camera. And he unexpectedly fell in love again, with his friend and neighbor, the writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks, whose exuberance--"I don't so much fear death as I do wasting life," he tells Hayes early on--is captured in vignettes throughout. What emerges is a portrait of Sacks at his most personal and endearing, from falling in love for the first time at age seventy-five to facing illness and death (Sacks died of cancer in August 2015).

Book Details

ISBN13 9781620404935
ISBN10 1620404931
Series/Work OL19732322W View on OpenLibrary
Publisher Bloomsbury USA
Language ENG
Created At January 30, 2025
Updated At January 30, 2025
Last OL update January 18, 2025

Community Reviews

Write a review

No reviews yet. Be the first to review this book!