Cape to publish surgeon Gabriel Weston

Jonathan Cape has acquired a book exploring the human body through a blend of science and memoir, Organs: Alternative Lessons in Anatomy by writer and surgeon Gabriel Weston.

Publishing director Michal Shavit and deputy publishing director Bea Hemming acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Claire Conrad at Janklow & Nesbit in what Cape describe as "a major deal".

Cape called the book "exhilarating, terrifying, magical, and, above all, personal". It draws on Weston’s 17-year career as a surgeon with each chapter taking a different organ and using it as a prism through which to examine both the science of a particular body part as well as "something more subjective that it represents". 

Weston's 2009 debut, Direct Red: A Surgeon’s Story (Cape) won the PEN Ackerley Prize and was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and her 2013 novel Dirty Work (Cape) won the McKitterick Prize. She also presents BBC2's "Trust Me I’m a Doctor".

Weston said: "For years now I have been longing to write a book about the human body which combines my rational surgical perspective with something altogether more personal. I am absolutely thrilled that Cape are going to be publishing this book."

Jonathan Cape will publish Organs in 2020.