Bloomsbury scoops Hari's new book on weight loss drugs

Bloomsbury has nabbed Magic Pill, a new book on weight loss drugs like Ozempic by Johann Hari, the author of Stolen Focus (Bloomsbury Publishing).

Alexis Kirschbaum, head of Bloomsbury Trade, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, as well as audiobook rights from Natasha Fairweather at RCW. The book is scheduled for publication on 21st May 2024, and will be released in hardback, e-book and audiobook.

In the book, Hari explores the new weight loss drugs available and shares his own experience on Ozempic, while also "examining our ability to heal society’s dysfunctional relationship with food, weight and our bodies".

The synopsis says: "In January 2023, Johann Hari started to inject himself once a week with Ozempic, one of the new drugs that produces significant weight loss. He wasn’t alone – some predictions suggest that in a few years, one in four of the British population will be taking these drugs. While around 80% of diets fail, someone taking one of the new drugs is likely to lose up to a quarter of their body weight in six months.

"To the drugs’ defenders, this is a moment of liberation from a condition that massively increases your chances of diabetes, cancer and an early death. Still, Hari was wildly conflicted […] Finding the answer to this high-stakes question led him on a journey from Iceland to Minneapolis to Tokyo, and to interview the leading experts in the world on these issues."

It goes on to add: "Magic Pill is an essential guide to the revolution that has already begun – and which one leading expert argues could be as transformative as the invention of the smartphone."

Kirschbaum said: "Magic Pill is the perfect example of Johann Hari’s brilliant talent for blending zeitgeist subjects with self-reflection and science – and integrating this into culturally definitive storytelling."

Hari added: "Obesity – and the diseases it causes – is one of the biggest killers in Britain, and its rate has been increasing every year I’ve been alive. So when I heard that there is a drug that, for the first time, can safely and rapidly take you down to a healthy weight, I thought it sounded too good to be true. I started to take it, and I spent a year investigating it.

"These drugs bring huge benefits – and huge potential risks. Soon, up to a quarter of British people will be taking them – and they are going to change our society in unpredictable ways. It’s exciting, and disturbing, and we’re all going to have to learn about it, fast."