A World Appears

Pollan has one of the most inquisitive and accommodating minds in the higher journalism of ourtime... A World Appears is a big, generous, illuminating and beautifully written inquiry into the essence of our being-in-the-world, of being, simply, alive

John Banville, Financial Times

Lucid and impassioned... a fabulous and mind-expanding exploration of consciousness... bridging both science and the humanities, Pollan mines neuroscientific research, philosophy, literature and his own mind, searching for different ways to think about being

Edward Posnett, Guardian

Razor-sharp, reassuringly sceptical, sensitive and grounded... you could not hope for a more judicious or readable summary of the scientific state of affairs

James McConnachie, Sunday Times

Pollan is so honest, so interested and so clever

Melanie McDonagh, Evening Standard

Humane and persuasive... this combination of boldness and intellectual humility, dogged curiosity and an openness to wonder makes Pollan, a veteran science journalist, an ideal guide to the mysteries of consciousness and science's many frustrated attempts to understand it. Few writers possess the same skill for translating notoriously abstruse theories... into readily understandable prose

Sophie McBain, Observer

A rewarding tour, thanks to Pollan's acute intellectual curiosity

Anthony Gottlieb, New Statesman