Critical Praise
“Levy has done an absolutely superb job of novelizing Barry’s life while her realization of him as a character is flawless. He is brilliant, impetuous, unafraid (perhaps foolishly) of making enemies in a good cause, an ardent supporter of women’s rights and an equally ardent enemy of slavery.... And the book is beautifully written.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“An elegant and provocative spin on the life of trans icon James Miranda Barry.... Perry’s narration brims with fascinating details about medicine and social mores of the time. This beautifully written work will spark much debate.”
—Publishers Weekly
“THE CAPE DOCTOR is a rare achievement: equal parts brains and heart, a page-turner and a deeply moving exploration of precisely what it means to be human. E. J. Levy breaks open what we think we know about gender, identity, and love and shines a light on the devastating limits of each. I can’t stop thinking about this gorgeous, thoughtful, heartbreaking book.”
—Lauren Fox, New York Times bestselling author of SEND FOR ME
“THE CAPE DOCTOR does what the best novels do. It invites us to put aside our own lives for a time in order to live someone else’s. And it repays the moral imagination that requires with something like wisdom.”
—Richard Russo, author of CHANCES ARE...
“THE CAPE DOCTOR is one of those rare wonders of historical fiction: a novel that is so utterly transporting, so fully steeped in its time and place I kept looking up from the page and wondering where I was. And how did E. J. Levy do it? Was she there? The story of its hero Dr. Perry, an Irish woman practicing medicine under cover as a man in nineteenth-century South Africa raises powerful contemporary questions about the nature of border crossings --- of gender, of class, and ultimately of love.”
—Sarah Blake, bestselling author of THE POSTMISTRESS
“E. J. Levy’s compelling novel THE CAPE DOCTOR, born at the intersection of history and imagination, powerfully examines the fluidity and complexity of gender. Levy offers a profound meditation on identity, loneliness, and love. THE CAPE DOCTOR provides everything I come to a novel hoping for --- graceful prose, first-rate storytelling, and an irresistible protagonist observed with deep compassion. I admired and adored this book.”
—Lori Ostlund, author of AFTER THE PARADE
“A remarkable reimagining of a remarkable life. The narrator of THE CAPE DOCTOR --- courageous, lonely, vivid --- lingers in the mind like a departed friend.”
—Elizabeth Kostova, author of THE HISTORIAN
