![Cover of “A Mistake” by Carl Shuker, featuring abstract surgical imagery in red and pink tones with bold white typography. A powerful New Zealand novel exploring medical ethics, human error, and gender dynamics in a hospital setting. [ Secondhand copy available at TheGravy.nz]](https://shop.thegravy.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Carl-Shuker-A-Mistake-The-Gravy-NZ-Bookstore-1.jpg)
![Back cover of “A Mistake” by Carl Shuker, summarising the story of a female surgeon caught in the fallout of a fatal operation. With praise from Pip Adam, this literary novel published by Victoria University Press delves into fallibility and professional pressure. [ Secondhand copy available at TheGravy.nz]](https://shop.thegravy.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Carl-Shuker-A-Mistake-The-Gravy-NZ-Bookstore-2.jpg)
A Mistake – Carl Shuker
$18.00
What happens when a brilliant woman in a critical role makes a single error?
Carl Shuker’s A Mistake cuts deep into the world of modern medicine, professional ego, and personal fallibility. A taut, intelligent novel set in the surgical theatre and beyond, it holds tension like a scalpel poised over skin.
2019 Reprint (Softcover)
-
📍 Publisher: Victoria University Press
-
📖 Edition: Reprint 2019 (originally published the same year)
-
🧼 Condition: Very good. Minor shelfwear to cover edges. Spine uncreased.
- ✅ Only 1 copy in stock
Description
Author: Carl Shuker
Publisher: Victoria University Press (2019)
ISBN: 9781776562145
In brief
What happens when a brilliant woman in a critical role makes a single error?
Carl Shuker’s A Mistake cuts deep into the world of modern medicine, professional ego, and personal fallibility. A taut, intelligent novel set in the surgical theatre and beyond, it holds tension like a scalpel poised over skin.
About the book
Elizabeth Taylor (yes, really) is a gifted, driven surgeon working in a high-pressure city hospital. She’s exceptional at her job. Unapologetic. Respected. Sometimes feared. One day, operating on a young woman in a complicated case, something goes wrong.
The novel follows the fallout — personal, institutional, emotional — of a single mistake made in a profession where perfection is expected and consequences are devastating. But this isn’t a courtroom drama. Shuker is more interested in the interior cost of being excellent, the power structures that protect or expose, and the quiet brutality of being a woman in medicine.
Written with clinical clarity and literary edge, A Mistake is lean and immersive. Shuker, a former editor at the British Medical Journal, brings both authority and style to this haunting, deeply human story.
Reviewer praise
“Shuker’s visceral and emotional novel is the most compelling New Zealand book I’ve read in years.” — Pip Adam
“A mistake, yes, but a masterpiece of fiction. This book punches hard.” — Metro Magazine
“One of our most courageous contemporary writers. There is no fat on this book.” — Newsroom
“Fire pumps and lugs and jugs. There’s blood on these pages, and a beating heart too.” — The Spinoff
“An anatomy of error and expectation. What a novel.” — Goodreads reviewer
![Cover of “A Mistake” by Carl Shuker, featuring abstract surgical imagery in red and pink tones with bold white typography. A powerful New Zealand novel exploring medical ethics, human error, and gender dynamics in a hospital setting. [ Secondhand copy available at TheGravy.nz]](https://shop.thegravy.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Carl-Shuker-A-Mistake-The-Gravy-NZ-Bookstore-1-150x150.jpg)
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.