The Echo Maker

The Echo Maker (2006) by Richard Powers. On a winter night on a remote Nebraska road, young Mark Schluter flips his pickup truck in a near-fatal accident, which leaves him brain-damaged. His sister, Karin, returns to their hometown to try to help nurse him back to health, but as he regains awareness he becomes convinced that she is an impostor -- someone who looks, sounds and acts like his sister, but is not really his sister. Karin, not knowing what to do, contacts the famous cognitive neurologist Gerald Weber to ask for his help. Weber recognizes Mark's condition as a case of the rare Capgras syndrome -- the delusion that people in one's life are impostors or doubles. The book is at its most engaging when describing case histories that Weber has explored in his writings, of rare and bizarre cases of changes in behavior and perception caused by damage to the brain. The plot has some interesting twists and turns, but strikes me as overlong. Grade: B