Jonathan Cape triumphs in eight-way auction for Prochaska’s 'urgent' history of childbirth

Jonathan Cape has secured Birth Story: A History of Power by human rights lawyer and historian Elizabeth Prochaska in an eight-way auction.

Michal Shavit, publishing director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to the “urgent and essential” history of childbirth from Sophie Lambert at The C&W Agency, for publication in 2025.

The book has sold in the US and Canada to Penguin and eight international territories so far. The publisher synopsis reads: “In Birth Story: A History of Power Elizabeth Prochaska effortlessly embraces layers of history, medicine, law, sociology and memoir to create an exquisitely structured, beautifully written, far-reaching work of narrative non-fiction.

“Birth Story is not only brimming with fascinating and important stories, but it will challenge and provoke, digging deep into what will seemingly always be a contentious subject: that of women’s autonomy over their bodies. It will tell the grand story of childbirth in unparalleled breadth, embracing its history, its depiction in art and literature, and the controls imposed on women’s power by science, medicine, culture and the law. It will take us far beyond the tired polemics of natural and medical birth, unmooring the fixed narrative of risk and suffering so that we come to understand birth as an essential part of the experience of living.”

Shavit said the book promised to be the catalyst for a new understanding of the history of power and humanity and “the turning point in the global conversation around how women have experienced their power and resisted, evaded and accommodated the controls placed on it”.

She added: “We are thrilled to welcome Elizabeth Prochaska to Cape and to publish this urgent and essential book.”

Prochaska said: “I am so excited that Birth Story will be published by Cape. It’s an honour to join a list featuring such brilliant and original books as Maggie Nelson’s On Freedom and Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens. Cape brings remarkable ambition and flair to titles that help us see universal human topics in new ways – which is exactly what I hope Birth Story will achieve. I can’t imagine a better home for it than Cape.”