Home » Story of a Heart
Product Image

Story of a Heart

Rachel Clarke
€27.50
Quantity:
In stock with our UK publisher. 14-28 days
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days
14 days return policy Shipping & Delivery
A01=Rachel Clarke
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
altruism
Author_Rachel Clarke
automatic-update
Baillie Gifford Prize
bestseller
Breathtaking
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=VFD
COP=United Kingdom
Costa Biography Award
Dear Life
Delivery_Pre-order
doctor
eq_bestseller
eq_health-lifestyle
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
generosity
health
heart
hospital
illness
inspiring
journalist
Language_English
medical memoir
medicine
narrative non-fiction
NHS
organ transplant
PA=Not yet available
palliative care
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Forthcoming
Rachel Clarke
science
softlaunch
surgery
up-lit
Your Life In My Hands

Product details

  • ISBN 9780349145594
  • Weight: 500g
  • Dimensions: 156 x 236mm
  • Publication Date: 03 Sep 2024
  • Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Hardback
  • Language: English
Secure checkout Fast Shipping Easy returns
Description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025
BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE SPECTATOR, NEW STATESMAN, NEW SCIENTIST, AND PROSPECT

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER DEAR LIFE AND BREATHTAKING, A MAJOR TV DRAMA

'What a book . . . The perfect book' Chris Evans on Virgin Radio

'Profoundly moving and at the same time wildly inspiring' Rob Delaney

'Rachel Clarke's finest book yet' Financial Times

'Remarkable' Cosmopolitan

'The best narrative non-fiction I've read in years. Rachel Clarke has written a profound piece of investigative journalism and wrapped it up in poetry' Christie Watson

'This is THE MOST BEAUTIFUL and riveting book: written with such humanity, empathy and knowledge, such tact and drama and eloquence. Vital reading, lifelong revelation' Laura Cumming

The first of our organs to form, the last to die, the heart is both a simple pump and the symbol of all that makes us human: as long as it continues to beat, we hope.

One summer day, nine-year-old Keira suffered catastrophic injuries in a car accident. Though her brain and 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 agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor. Meanwhile nine-year-old Max had been hospitalised for nearly a year with a 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.

This is the unforgettable story of how one family's grief transformed into a lifesaving gift. With tremendous compassion and clarity, Dr Rachel Clarke relates the urgent journey of Keira's heart and explores the history of the remarkable medical innovations that made it possible, stretching back over a century and involving the knowledge and dedication not just of surgeons but of countless physicians, immunologists, nurses and scientists.

The Story of a Heart is a testament to compassion for the dying, the many ways we honour our loved ones, and the tenacity of love.
About Rachel Clarke
Dr Rachel Clarke is an NHS palliative care doctor and the author of four Sunday Times bestselling non-fiction books. The most recent of these, The Story of a Heart (2024), won the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. Breathtaking (2021), which reveals how she and her colleagues confronted the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, was adapted into an acclaimed television series, broadcast on ITV in 2024. Dear Life (2020), depicting her work in an NHS hospice, was shortlisted for the 2020 Costa Biography Award and long-listed for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize. Before going to medical school, Rachel was a broadcast journalist. She produced and directed current affairs documentaries focusing on subjects such as Al Qaeda, the Iraq War and the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She continues to write regularly for the Guardian, Sunday Times, New Statesman and Lancet among others, and appears regularly on television and radio. Inspired by a visit to Ukraine during the conflict in late 2022, Rachel founded a UK-registered charity, Hospice Ukraine, which supports the work of local palliative care teams in Ukraine.

More from this author