Dirty work - Gabriel Weston

Two women in a room.
One is bleeding to death.
The other just sits back and watches.
For both, there is everything to lose.

Surgeons are meant to save lives, but Nancy is a special kind of surgeon. Doctors are meant to be good at reporting the truth, but Nancy's is an untellable story.

A mistake made in the operating theatre changes all of this. Summoned to explain herself to a tribunal appointed by the General Medical Council, Nancy is forced to consider what it means to be a doctor who has killed as well as cured. And to realise that her own redemption can only come through telling a tale that nobody wants to hear.

Gabriel Weston, author of the acclaimedDirect Red: A Surgeon's Story, winner of the 2010 PEN/Ackerley Prize, has written an extraordinarily moving and powerful novel about a female doctor who performs abortions.