Many of us know that if we had lived 200 years ago, we would not have lived for very long. Chances are that I would not have even survived my birth! ‘Fleshmarket’ by Nicola Morgan takes us back to life in 1822, providing a rare look at a time when many life conditions, including sanitation and medicine, were far more crude and rudimentary than they are today.

We are introduced to eight year old Robbie, the main character of this novel, in the prologue, where he is bystander at his mother’s breast cancer operation. Performed without anesthetic, the operation which is intended to save her life leads to her death from infection several days later, and Robbie blames the surgeon, Dr Knox, for her death. When family circumstances change for the worse, Robbie becomes fixated on Knox, trying to get close enough to him to work out how to get revenge. But morality is more complex than that, as Robbie’s own values are tested and he comes to understand more of Knox’s life mission.

Inspired by the author’s tour of Surgeon’s Hall in Edinburgh, this is a horrifying glimpse of life in the not-too-distant past. Both Robbie’s mother and Dr Knox are based on true characters, which intensifies the chilling reality and brutality of some parts of the story, including the prologue. For me, the accounts of surgery and post-mortems were almost unbearable, yet this is a true representation of life in that era. Morgan has captured early surgery so well that we quiver at the prospect of living in that era.

Although written with a teenage audience in mind, this novel could be read by adults. Morgan’s writing is powerful, the content definitely thought-provoking, lingering long after the novel is finished. It provides valuable reading to supplement studies of science and medicine in the early 19th century. It is definitely not a read for the faint-hearted! Mrs O.