NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Winner of the 2025 Quebec Writers' Federation Literary Award Concordia University First Book Award and Finalist for the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction
A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year
A Hill Times Top 100 Book of 2025
“[This] is essentially four books in one: a history of neuroscience, individual biographies of Wilder Penfield and William Cone, and a creative non-fiction history of the Montreal Neurological Institute. Thoroughly researched, robustly structured, and written with care for the period and the central actors, The Mind Mappers, as an historical work, reads with the narrative pull of a novel. The book foregrounds the virtues of cooperation and friendship, reflects on how these attributes can drive collaborative, professional relationships, and on how they can enable breakthroughs in medical science. The sense of drama and the tension between love and betrayal are outstanding.” —The QWF Concordia University First Book Prize jury
“Compelling. . . . The Mind Mappers is Eric Andrew-Gee’s first book, and it is impressive. He has produced a well-researched and lively account of Canada’s premier neurological institute and its founders, while reminding us that the successes of inspirational leaders such as Penfield . . . often depend on their colleagues in the wings.”
—Literary Review of Canada
“Heavy with pathos in its biographical details and the author’s own capacity for insight and
compassion. . . . The Mind Mappers is not just a book, but also the project of rebalancing history.”
—The Globe and Mail
“Eric Andrew-Gee has restored Cone to his rightful place in the history of the institution. A
fascinating tale, well told.”
—Millstone News
“Brisk, lucid writing about one of nature’s most perplexing mysteries—the human brain—enriched by a deft and unflinching exploration of the complicated friendship between two of history’s most brilliant doctors.”
—Linden MacIntyre, bestselling, Giller Prize-winning author and broadcast journalist
“Andrew-Gee has written not just a biography of two fascinating brain surgeons, nor just a portrait of Montreal as a global mecca for brain research in the 1930s and 40s. He invites us into the mysterious territory of the brain itself. Engrossing, compelling, convincing.”
—Rosemary Sullivan, bestselling author of The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation
“Compelling and accomplished, The Mind Mappers unfolds several remarkable stories in elegant tandem: of bold medical research and discovery, of intimate friendships and their sometimes tragic cost and of mid-20th century Montreal, a city of radiant character. An impressive debut by Eric Andrew-Gee.”
—Charles Foran, author of Mordecai: The Life & Times
“The best narrative non-fiction I've read in ages. The Mind Mappers is going to be one of your favourite reads this year.”
—Robyn Doolittle, author of Had It Coming
“The Mind Mappers is an intriguing book that reveals the trailblazing researchers who made modern neurosurgery possible. This fascinating study of the brain and the unique friendship among scientists shows how individual genius and community interact to create knowledge. A thrilling and insightful book that will illuminate your mind.”
—Jason Bell, bestselling author of Cracking the Nazi Code: The Untold Story of Canada’s Greatest Spy
“In his vividly realized portrait of medical heroism, Eric Andrew-Gee unravels the dynamic bond between two gifted, driven, fatherless brain surgeons whose ground-breaking achievements end in betrayal and tragedy. Mirroring the left and right hemispheres of a single brain, Penfield and Cone operated as ying and yang, linked yet distinct personalities, brilliantly probing the “undiscovered country” of human consciousness. Yet in their quest for the holy grail—the seat of the soul—they become the stuff of Greek myth, unconscious of the dark side of obsessive perfectionism, the saviour complex and the unforeseen human costs. An archetypal tale, both inspiring and cautionary, abounding in paradox. Physician, heal thyself!”
—James FitzGerald, author of What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son’s Quest to Redeem the Past, winner of the Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction
“Eric Andrew-Gee has pulled off something remarkable: a history of the breakthroughs in brain science that takes us on a fascinating journey deep into not just the minds but also the very hearts and souls of the two scientists who put Canada at the forefront of that research. Using his sharp prose as his scalpel, he exposes the myths and mysteries in the race to understand what makes us human.”
—Julian Sher, author of The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots Against Lincoln
“Eric Andrew-Gee’s The Mind Mappers is an obsessively researched, supremely detailed portrait of the greatest unrequited love story in neuroscience, the beautiful and then suddenly tragic friendship of Wilder Penfield and William Cone, two pioneers who unraveled the mysteries of the brain but not the mysteries of each other. Like many love stories, it begins and ends in Montreal and offers a darkly glittering portrait of that city’s most glamorous period.”
—Stephen Marche, author of The Next Civil War
“With an ear for anecdote and an appreciation for the ironies and unintended consequences of scientific inquiry and experimentation, The Mind Mappers explores the complicated, sometimes conflicted, decades-long professional and personal friendship of two renowned neurosurgeons at The Neuro in Montreal, whose pioneering research into the human brain and its diseases changed the history of medicine.”
—Stephen R. Bown, bestselling author of The Company and Dominion
