"A fascinating historical novel, The Cape Doctor is the story of an eminent nineteenth-century surgeon's rise from penniless Irish girl to one of the most celebrated and accomplished figures of the time. Inspired by the life of Dr. James Miranda Barry (born Margaret Anne Bulkley circa 1795), E. J. Levy's enthralling novel brings this captivating character vividly alive. Beginning in Cork, Ireland, the novel recounts Jonathan Mirandus Perry's journey from daughter to son in order to enter medical school and provide for family, but Perry soon embraced the new-found freedom of living life as a man. From brilliant medical student in Edinburgh and London to eligible bachelor and quick-tempered physician in Cape Town, Dr. Perry thrived. When he befriended the aristocratic Cape Governor, the doctor rose to the pinnacle of society, before the two were publicly accused of a homosexual affair that scandalized the colonies and nearly cost them their lives."--From book jacket