This book is a must for every synthetic chemist. With didactic skill and clarity, K. C. Nicolaou and E. Sorensen present the most remarkable and ingenious total syntheses from outstanding synthetic organic chemists. To make the complex strategies more accessible, especially to the novice, each total synthesis is analyzed retrosynthetically. The authors then carefully explain each synthetic step and give hints on alternative methods and potential pitfalls. Numerous references to useful reviews and the original literature make this book an indispensable source of further information. Special emphasis is placed on the skillful use of graphics and schemes: Retrosynthetic analyses, reaction sequences, and stereochemically crucial steps are presented in boxed sections within the text. For easy reference, key intermediates are also shown in the margins. Graduate students and researchers alike will find this book a gold mine of useful information essential for their daily work. Every synthetic organic chemist will want to have a copy on his or her desk.

K. C. Nicolaou is Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, San Diego and is Chairman of the Department of Chemistry and holds the Skaggs Professorship of Chemical Biology and the Darlene Shiley Chair in Chemistry at The Scripps Research Insitute. His impact on chemistry flows from his works in chemical synthesis and chemical biology described in over 550 publications and 55 patents.