The extraordinary prize-winning debut from Andrew Miller. Winner of the IMPAC Aw
ard and James Tait Black Memorial Prize. At the dawn of the Enlightenment, James
Dyer is born unable to feel pain.
A source of wonder and scientific curiosit
y as a child, he rises through the ranks of Georgian society to become a brillia
nt surgeon. Yet as a human being he fails, for he can no more feel love and comp
assion than pain. Until, en route to St Petersburg to inoculate the Empress Cath
erine against smallpox, he meets his nemesis and saviour.
