“A hugely informative and also entertaining look at a part of the body that we should stop ignoring.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
Constipation seems to have become an Indian preoccupation after Piku so there is an audience out there just waiting to take this book to its heart. Giulia Enders surprising study of intestines and anuses and prebiotics, probiotics and pinworms along the way, takes the reader on an unexpected journey of what most people would consider the deplorable regions of anatomy. The book is actually a work of biology but Enders’ bouncy style makes it go down with ease, rather like a bolus passing through the digestive passage.
She began it because of a student she encountered who had incredibly bad halitosis and who committed suicide the day after she met him. That set her to wondering what it was about our digestive systems that could affect our lives so greatly.