Sawbones

Product Information

This is a brilliant adventure story that manages to give young readers a really important insight into slavery without being so upsetting that it’s impossible to read. A very fine balance, masterfully achieved.

I did not want to put this novel down. Ezra shows us the world of cadavers from the perspective of medical science, whilst the brave yet vulnerable Loveday introduces the mystery. Together they discover a web of intrigue. The book is both original and informative.Sawbones is the story of Ezra, a young apprentice surgeon – or ‘sawbones’ – working in 18 th century London. When his master is killed, he meets Loveday Finch, who is looking for answers about her father’s murder. Together, they must discover what connects the two deaths, and why a mysterious organisation called the Ottoman Embassy may be behind them. Catherine Johnson is a British author and screenwriter. She has written several young adult novels and co-wrote the screenplay for the 2004 drama film Bullet Boy.

This quote sums up the novel perfectly. In 1792, sixteen-year-old Ezra McAdam assists at the dissection table as a gifted apprentice to a high regarded London surgeon, learning how to reveal the secrets each body hides. His age is an estimate based on medical measurements as he, a mulatto of mixed race, was bought in Spanish Town by his master, Mr McAdam. The skills he learns as a surgeon’s apprentice will serve him well for life. Slavery is a part of history we would rather forget yet that's precisely what we should never do. We should never forget that we believe in freedom for all people, the freedom to live in dignity, to freedom of movement. We have been talking about slavery this year since the toppling of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol, and unfortunately my son (10) gets so angry reading about what happens to Nat, that he can't get into the book. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Then a strange series of events changes everything. Now, McAdam is dead, and Ezra is alone - except for the unconventional Miss Loveday Finch, daughter of a magician, who is looking for answers about her father's death. Soon, the pair find themselves tangled in an adventure featuring grave-robbing, body-switching and political intrigue, which takes them a journey across London from the Operating Theatre at St Bart's, to the vaults of Newgate Prison, to the shadowy Ottoman Embassy.