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Title details for Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke - Available

Story of a Heart

by Rachel Clarke
Rachel Clarke
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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Shortlisted for the Women's Prize and the Baillie Gifford Prize

An unforgettable and inspiring true story of how one family's grief transformed into a lifesaving gift—written by a bestselling author and palliative care doctor.
The first of our organs to form and the last to die, the heart is both a simple pump and the symbol of what makes us human; as long as it continues to beat, there is hope. In The Story of a Heart, Dr. Rachel Clarke blends the history of medical innovations behind transplant surgery with the story of two children—one of whom desperately needs a new heart.

One summer day, nine-year-old Keira Ball was in a terrible car accident and suffered catastrophic brain injuries. As the rest of her body began to shut down, her heart continued to beat. In an act of extraordinary generosity, Keira's parents and siblings immediately agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor. Meanwhile nine-year-old Max Johnson had been in a hospital for nearly a year, valiantly fighting the virus that was causing his young heart to fail. When Max's parents received the call they had been hoping for, they knew it came at a terrible cost to another family—in what Clarke calls "the brutal arithmetic of transplant surgery."

The act of Keira's heart resuming its rhythm inside Max's body was a medical miracle. But this was only part of the story. While waiting on the transplant list, Max had become the hopeful face of a campaign to change the UK's laws around organ donation. Following his successful surgery, Keira's mother saw the little boy beaming on the front page of the newspaper and knew it was the same boy whose parents had recently sent her an anonymous letter overflowing with gratitude for her daughter's heart. The two mothers began to exchange messages and eventually decided to meet.

In this "profoundly moving...[and] beautiful, humane book" (Rob Delaney) Clarke relates the urgent journey of Keira's heart and explores the history of the remarkable surgery that made it possible, stretching back over a century and involving the knowledge and dedication of surgeons, nurses and technicians, immunologists and paramedics. A powerful tale of two families linked by one heart, The Story of a Heart is a testament to compassion for the dying, the many ways we honor our loved ones, and the tenacity of love.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 10, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781797182995
      • File size: 260132 KB
      • Duration: 09:01:56

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from July 29, 2024
      Physician Clarke (Breathtaking) offers a profoundly moving account of how a pediatric heart transplant changed organ donation laws in Britain. In 2017, nine-year-old Keira Ball suffered a “catastrophic brain injury” as the result of a car crash. At her older sister’s insistence, Keira’s heart was donated to Max Johnson, a nine-year-old whose heart had been weakened by illness. The families eventually struck up a correspondence and successfully campaigned together to make organ donation an opt-out system in the U.K. Clarke’s impressive reporting offers a fly-on-the-wall account of how Keira’s heart made its way to Max (“Gloved hands cranked at stainless steel—it takes brute force to prize a rib cage apart. Max’s heart, once exposed, was slack and gargantuan”). Clarke also weaves in fascinating medical history, chronicling the development of ventilators during the 1950s polio epidemic and the first heart transplant, which was performed by an ill-prepared South African surgeon in 1967. However, the main draw is the heartrending story of how two families forged a path through tragedy (a particularly affecting scene describes how at the families’ first meeting, the Johnsons brought a stethoscope so the Balls could listen to Keira’s heart). A tearjerker that doubles as a first-rate medical history, this is a marvel. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Assoc.

    • Library Journal

      March 1, 2025

      Palliative care physician Clarke (Breathtaking) tells the story of two families inextricably linked through organ donation. When a car crash irreparably damages nine-year-old Keira Ball's brain, her family begins the process of donating her organs. Concurrently, nine-year-old Max Johnson, whose heart was weakened by illness, is foundering as he waits for a new heart. Narrating her own account, Clarke interweaves the history of organ donation and heart-transplant surgery with Max's and Keira's alternating stories. With a gentle tempo and compassionate tone, Clarke crafts affecting images of each person in the story. The somewhat scientific description of medical procedures is occasionally technical but not so daunting as to prevent listeners from connecting with the text. However, Clarke's pronunciation of some words, specifically the whistling sound of the letter "s," detracts from the audio experience. VERDICT This touching book, recommended as a first purchase for all libraries, will make listeners want to hold their loved-ones closer while ensuring their status as organ donors. Recommended for those who appreciated Sarah Gray's A Life Everlasting.--Misty Schattle

      Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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