The Tell-Tale Heart
Jill Dawson
Harper Perennial, Feb 10 2015, $14.99
ISBN: 9780062348807
Fifty years old university lecturer Patrick spent decades of
debauchery until his doctor tells him he has no more than six months to live
due to a severely damaged heart. Patrick
receives a second chance when a healthy fifteen years old boy dies in a tragic
accident. At Papworth Hospital using the
beating heart technique, doctors successfully transplant the lad’s organ inside
Patrick.
Once recovered from the surgery, Patrick finds what pleasured him
for years now leaves him ennui. He
discusses this with his doctor who insists no evidence exists that cellular
memories from the donor comes with the organ.
Needing to know about the lad, Patrick learns he has Littleport resident
Drew Beamish’s heart beating inside him.
With an obsession to learn who was this teen who gave him a second
chance, Patrick looks into Drew’s life and that of present and past relations
including the early eighteenth-century relative Willis involved in a bread
riot.
The engaging Tell-Tale Heart is an enthralling story that provides
readers with perspectives from the recipient, the donor and the ancestor. There are two intriguing overarching themes:
that the austere Fens has a thriving beautiful ecosystem for those looking beyond
the bleak; and whether it is cellular or not a transplant changes the
recipient’s outlook (think of Ghost Whisperer’s episode Mended Hearts) in many
ways including a degree of separation to the late donor as close of not more
than twins share. Although the Willis
subplot adds depth to the premise of expanded memories beyond one’s
experiences; it also interferes with the more appealing contemporary subplots.
Harriet Klausner
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