The Tell-Tale Heart
Description
A man's life and his capacity for love mysteriously changes after a heart transplant in this dramatic and affecting novel--as provocative and poignant as the works of Jodi Picoult, Jojo Moyes, and Alice Sebold--from the acclaimed Orange Prize nominee and author of Lucky Bunny.
After years of excessive drink and sex, Patrick's heart has collapsed. Only fifty, he has been given six months to live. But a tragic accident involving a teenager and a motorcycle gives the university professor a second chance. He receives the boy's heart in a transplant, and by this miracle of science, two strangers are forever linked.
Though Patrick's body accepts his new heart, his old life seems to reject him. Bored by the things that once enticed him, he begins to look for meaning in his experience. Discovering that his donor was a local boy named Drew Beamish, he becomes intensely curious about Drew's life and the influences that shaped him-from the eighteenth-century ancestor involved in a labor riot to the bleak beauty of the Cambridgeshire countryside in which he was raised. Patrick longs to know the story of this heart that is now his own.
In this intriguing and deeply absorbing story, Jill Dawson weaves together the lives and loves of three vibrant characters connected by fate to explore questions of life after death, the nature of the soul, the unseen forces that connect us, and the symbolic power of the heart.
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About the Author
Jill Dawson is the author of Trick of the Light, Magpie, Fred and Edie, which was short-listed for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize, Wild Boy, Watch Me Disappear, which was long-listed for the Orange Prize, The Great Lover, and Lucky Bunny. She has edited six anthologies of short stories and poetry, and has written for numerous UK publications, including The Guardian, The Times, Vogue, and Harper's Bazaar. She lives in Norfolk with her husband and two sons.
Reviews
"Willie's narration also showcases [Dawson's] most lyrical writing....With a title borrowed...from Poe's best-known short story, Dawson's novel...pose[s]...genuine questions about what it means to be fully human."--New York Times Book Review
"This deft, intelligent novel explores the human anxiety that replacing a heart is the closest one can come to replacing a soul."--The Guardian (London)
"Dawson navigates this territory with a freshness and wit that belie a seasoned novelist."--The Times (London)
"A tender and thoughtful novel that explores some of the fundamental questions about identity and the symbolism of the heart."--Daily Mail (London)
"Dawson knows how to pluck the heartstrings too. The moment when Drew's mother listens to her dead son's heart beating in Patrick's chest is devastating...the flashback leading up to the hanging of one of Drew's forefathers is one of the highlights in a narrative that keeps you guessing."--The Sunday Telegraph
"As wise as it is witty, Dawson's skilful storytelling constructs a unique look at how one deals with another life, if given a second chance. Split into seven parts, her prose absorbs the reader into a beautifully crafted novel that will extend many a reading afternoon."--Huffington Post
"[A] searching and gently philosophical novel...moving and intriguing."--Literary Review
"Dawson explores the broad range of complexities involved in organ transplantation with reverence and respect for the recipient and the donor family, skillfully skirting the maudlin in favor of crafting vibrant characterizations."--Booklist
