Alive: An Alternative Anatomy

A profound and provocative journey through the human body from the award-winning writer, broadcaster and surgeon.


What does it mean to live in a body?

For Gabriel Weston, there was always something missing from the anatomy she was taught at medical school. Medicine teaches us how a body functions, but it doesn't help us navigate the reality of living in one. As she became a surgeon, a mother, and ultimately a patient herself, Weston found herself grappling with the gap between scientific knowledge and unfathomable complexity of human experience.

In this captivating exploration of the body, Weston dissolves the boundaries that usually divide surgeon and patient, pushing beyond the limit of what science has to tell us about who we are. Focusing on our individual organs, not just under the intense spotlight of the operating theatre, but in the central role they play in the stories of our lives, a fuller and more human picture of our bodies emerges: more fragile, frightening and miraculous than we could have imagined.

Intimate, penetrating and original, Alive is an anatomy like no other, about our bodies and bonds, the richness and brevity of existence, and the thread of mortality that connect us all.

Review

An exceptional, beautiful and absolutely absorbing book. Gabriel Weston is one of the best writers around, and when it comes to medicine and anatomy she redefines the genre. ALIVE is a tour of human life and bodies, but she also brings her own body, in the context of her own life, into an absolutely compelling narrative; sex, pregnancy, asylum seekers, breast implants and hearts – especially the author's own heart, in every sense. It is essential reading if you own a body and should be mandatory for all those who study them. -- Chris van Tulleken, author of ULTRA PROCESSED PEOPLE

A book of wonder and appreciation of our fragile bodies -- Sarah Moss, author of GHOST WALL

Beguiling and sophisticated -- Jed Mercurio ― writer of Bodyguard (TV series)

Unusual and gripping... as much about what our bodies mean to us, how they feel to us, as what they do... This bold, humane yet unsettling book makes a strong case for giving doctors more time to get to know their patients properly, and it will make you see your own body a bit differently, perhaps change how you feel in your skin. ― Guardian

As Gabriel Weston demonstrates in this remarkable book, each organ of our body is a miracle of evolutionary imagination, performing tasks that are outlandishly creative and brilliant. An unusually compelling and illuminating book. -- Misha Glenny, author of ― McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime

Gabriel Weston is an extraordinary writer … The book is a powerful read… Her descriptions really make the human body come alive. ― The Spectator

A refreshingly accessible medical text that broadens our knowledge of our bodies… Alive comes heartily recommended to anyone wishing to better acquaint themselves with their own fluids ― New Statesman

A gripping and lyrical tour of the major organs... filled with fascinating facts... there is a lot of tenderness too. ― Telegraph

About the Author

Gabriel Weston was born in 1970. She studied English at Edinburgh University before attending medical school in London and becoming a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2003. Her Sunday Times bestselling debut, Direct Red, was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and won the PEN-Ackerley Award for Autobiography, while her novel Dirty Work won the McKitterick Prize. The presenter of several BBC TV series, including Trust Me I’m a Doctor and Incredible Medicine: Dr Weston’s Casebook, she currently works as a part-time surgeon and lives in London with her husband and children.