Taking Heart

In her fourth novel to be published by the company she founded in 1994, Doumani (Indiscretions) provides a well-meaning, strong argument for the organ-donor program. On his way to play golf one morning, Jack Barnes collides with a 16-wheeler while trying to avoid hitting a dog. While his wife, Emily, waits for news of his condition in the hospital. she runs across a patient the staff calls the Tin Man because of his wry, courageous humor. He's a desperately ill 34-year-old drummer, waiting for a new heart. When Jack is pronounced brain dead, Emily agrees to give his body to an organ donor agency, and the Tin Man (aka Sam Sampson) is the recipient of Jack's heart, though neither he nor Emily is initially aware of their connection. Emily's mourning is bitter and confused, and after the transplant, life is full of questions for Sam as well. Once he learns the identity of his heart donor, he becomes obsessed with Emily, feeling that she needs his help. The new widow, coping with Jonah, her troubled 13-year-old son from a previous marriage, and life on her own, discovers she is pregnant with Jack's child. Eventually, she and Sam are drawn together, but their relationship is threatened when his new heart proves to be unstable. Doumani drafts a valuable blueprint of both the emotional and physical challenges confronting transplant patients and the woeful lottery of donor waiting lists. By turns wrenching and life-affirming, this story of symbiosis climaxes with a string of circumstances that readers may find manipulative. The novel's most powerful message is that while we can't choose what happens to us, we can always choose how we react. (Jan.) FYI: Wave Publishing will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Taking Heart to the Heart Transplantation Center at UCLA Medical Center.