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A Journey Through the Changing Human Body
by Gavin Francis
From birth to death, a lyrical exploration of the role of transformation in human life.
To be alive is to be in perpetual metamorphosis: growing, healing, learning, aging. In Shapeshifters, physician and writer Gavin Francis considers the inevitable changes all of our bodies undergo - such as birth, puberty, and death, but also laughter, sleeping, and healing - and those that only some of our bodies will: like getting a tattoo, experiencing psychosis, suffering anorexia, being pregnant, or undergoing a gender transition. In Francis's hands, each event becomes an opportunity to explore the meaning of identity and the natures-biological, psychological, and philosophical-of our selves. True to its own subject, Shapeshifters combines Francis's lyrical imagination and deep knowledge of medicine and the humanities for a life-altering read.
"Starred Review. Francis always makes you think. Captivating medical narratives that fit well alongside those of Oliver Sachs, Atul Gawande, Jerome Groopman, and Berton Roueché." - Kirkus
"Francis's wide-ranging experience and curiosity produce fascinating samples of medical and cultural approaches to human change, albeit ones best consumed in small portions." - Publishers Weekly
"This stylish and exhilarating collection of essays comes from a wide-ranging mind and a profound humanity. With warmth and wit, Gavin Francis examines the body's strategies for survival and change, embedding his thoughts in a broad frame of reference from across human culture and history. Each piece is a pleasure to read, and in sum they are inspiring." - Hilary Mantel, Man Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies
"Steeped as much in history as in the future, we might describe this book as an audacious attempt to write a manifesto for a trans-human future (read it to understand what that phrase might mean)." - Siddartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene
"Wonderful, written with a deep feeling for language. A writer-physician who sees the drama and beauty in human life." - Annie Dillard, author of An American Childhood and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
"A wonderful series of meditations - clinical, anthropological, literary and deeply humane - on his patients and their illnesses." - Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm
This information about Shapeshifters was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Gavin Francis is a physician and the award-winning author of four books, including Adventures in Human Being, Empire Antarctica; and True North. A regular contributor to the London Review of Books, Guardian, and New York Review of Books, Francis lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.
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