The Story of a Heart

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD'So very important' NIGELLA LAWSON'Brilliantly alive' SUNDAY TIMES'A truly wonderful book. Read it' HENRY MARSH'Shows us the very best of human nature' ADAM KAY'Her words are brimful of love, grace and kindness' GUARDIANAs a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke chooses to inhabit a place many people would find too tragic to contemplate. Every day, she tries to bring care and comfort to those reaching the end of their lives and to help make dying more bearable. Rachel's training was put to the test in 2017 when her beloved GP father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She learned that nothing - even the best palliative care - can sugar-coat the pain of losing someone you love. And yet, she argues, in a hospice there is more of what matters in life - more love, more strength, more kindness, more joy, more tenderness, more grace, more compassion - than you could ever imagine. For if there is a difference between people who know they are dying and the rest of us, it is simply this: that the terminally ill know their time is running out, while we live as though we have all the time in the world. Dear Life is a book about the vital importance of human connection, by the doctor we would all want by our sides at a time of crisis. It is a love letter - to a father, to a profession, to life itself.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024<BR>SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025<BR>BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE SPECTATOR, NEW STATESMAN, NEW SCIENTIST, AND PROSPECT<BR><BR>FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER DEAR LIFE AND BREATHTAKING, A MAJOR TV DRAMA<BR><BR>'What a book . . . The perfect book' Chris Evans on Virgin Radio<BR><BR>'Profoundly moving and at the same time wildly inspiring' Rob Delaney<BR><BR>'Rachel Clarke's finest book yet' Financial Times<BR><BR>'Remarkable' Cosmopolitan<BR><BR>'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<BR><BR>'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<BR><BR>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. <BR><BR>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. <BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.

Eine wahre Geschichte über Liebe, Mitgefühl und Menschlichkeit'Es gibt Momente, in denen Clarkes bewegende und einfühlsame Art zu Schreiben einem den Atem raubt.' The GuardianBei einem schrecklichen Autounfall erleidet die neunjährige Keira tödliche Verletzungen. Doch ihr Herz schlägt unermüdlich weiter. Zur selben Zeit wird der gleichaltrige Max, der nur durch eine Herztransplantation eine Chance aufs Überleben hat, immer schwächer. Als seine Eltern den langersehnte Anruf erhalten, wissen sie, dass er für eine andere Familie einen fürchterlichen Verlust bedeutet.Mit ungeheurem Mitgefühl erzählt die Autorin und Ärztin Rachel Clarke von der Reise eines Herzens und von all den Menschen, die durch ihren unentwegten Einsatz einen Teil zu ihr beigetragen haben. Dabei verwebt sie die Ereignisse der Gegenwart auf kluge und beeindruckende Weise mit der Geschichte der außergewöhnlichen medizinischen Errungenschaften des 20. Jahrhundert, die sie möglich gemacht haben.Ein außergewöhnliches und inspirierendes Buch über die Beharrlichkeit des menschlichen Körpers, die Kraft der Liebe, und darüber, was es bedeutet, am Leben zu sein.'Clarke hätte diese Geschichte nicht zärtlicher erzählen können.' The TimesBuch des Jahres 2024 im Spectator, The Independent, Sunday Times, Financial TimesGewinner des WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025

FROM THE WINNER OF THE 2025 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION<BR><BR>'I am a junior doctor. It is 4 a.m. I have run arrest calls, treated life-threatening bleeding, held the hand of a young woman dying of cancer, scuttled down miles of dim corridors wanting to sob with sheer exhaustion, forgotten to eat, forgotten to drink, drawn on every fibre of strength that I possess to keep my patients safe from harm.'<BR><BR>How does it feel to be spat out of medical school into a world of pain, loss and trauma that you feel wholly ill-equipped to handle? To be a medical novice who makes decisions which - if you get them wrong - might forever alter, or end, a person's life?<BR><BR>In Your Life in My Hands, television journalist turned junior doctor Rachel Clarke captures the extraordinary realities of life on the NHS frontline. During the historic junior doctor strikes of 2016, Rachel was at the forefront of the campaign against the government's imposed contract upon young doctors. Her heartfelt, deeply personal account of life as a junior doctor in today's NHS is both a powerful polemic on the degradation of Britain's most vital public institution and a love letter of optimism and hope to that same health service.