Recommendations from our site
“Rachel Clarke is a palliative care doctor. Here, she documents the story of Keira, a nine-year-old girl who has a catastrophic injury, and her parents, who have to make the unbearable decision in the midst of their grief of what to do with her heart. Because there’s a little boy who desperately needs the heart, and they give the ultimate gift—they give this heart to the little boy and they save his life. I cried throughout reading this book. So did a lot of my fellow judges. And there’s such dignity in how she deals with the subject matter, and in the behaviour of both sets of parents. There is also dignity in the medical staff.” Read more...
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction
Kavita Puri, Journalist
“The parents of the donor, the little girl who died, are able to listen to her heart beating in the little boy whose life it saved. I have to tell you, as stories go, I am already beginning to weep just thinking about it. Again, it’s a book that once read is never forgotten. It’s told with extraordinary insight, medical knowledge and extraordinary sensitivity to the people involved. She tells their story, of something we take for granted, heart transplants, in a way that I’ve never seen it told before. It’s profoundly moving.” Read more...
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist
Isabel Hilton, Journalist
