by Jill Dawson
First published 2014
Patrick is fifty years old, drinks too much, sleeps around, and teaches American Studies. He has six months left to live. In rural Cambridgeshire, a teenager named Drew Beamish crashes his motorcycle and dies. Surgeons transplant Drew's heart into Patrick's chest. The operation saves Patrick's life, but something feels wrong. His old existence seems to reject him. He cannot stop thinking about the boy whose heart now beats inside him. Patrick starts digging into Drew's past. He learns about the family that raised him, the culture that shaped him, the ancestor who fought in the Littleport riots of 1816. He explores the harsh beauty of the Fens where Drew lived and died. Two strangers become bound together by flesh and blood. Patrick must discover the story behind his new heart.
Genres: fiction, drama, literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Cambridgeshire, Fens
Period: 21st-century
304 pages · Hardcover · ISIS Large Print Books
Content warnings: medical-trauma