Email a friendIrreplaceable
Alex Voormann, an intense, cerebral thirty-year-old archaeologist, is married to the woman of his dreams—an intelligent, ambitious botanist named Isabel. When Isabel is killed by a reckless driver, Alex reluctantly agrees to donate her heart.
Janet Corcoran, a young mother of two and an art teacher at an inner-city school in Chicago, is sick with heart disease. She is on the waiting list for a transplant, but her chances are slim. She watches the Weather Channel, secretly praying for foul weather and car crashes. The day Isabel dies, Janet gets her wish.
So begins this extraordinary story about two families whose lives intersect forever in the aftermath of a tragic accident.
Alex Voormann is a cerebral thirty-year-old archaeologist married to the woman of his dreams
“Irreplaceable explores the mystery and vagaries of life with such gentle understanding of the way things can fall apart in an instant and, just as suddenly, come together. Stephen Lovely knows the human heart.”
—Luanne Rice, author of The Geometry of Sisters
“Truly unique. An utterly convincing portrait of people who have lost the person they love most in the world.”
—Associated Press
“[Irreplaceable] vividly realizes the casualties and rebirths that occur when an organ is donated after a fatal accident. Lovely explores the nature of grief and guilt, salvation and healing.”
—The Columbus Dispatch
“Stephen Lovely’s debut novel is wise, heartbreaking, funny, and human in every possible way. In this debut novel, he manages to humanize the sterile world of heart transplants, the faceless victims and lucky receivers of their organs, and the families who are touched forever by happenstance. Irreplaceable is unforgettable. I simply love this book.”
—Ann Hood, author of Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine
“You may think you know the drama at the center of this accomplished debut novel: the agony and the joy that attends a heart transplant operation. Please, think again. Stephen Lovely has imagined his way deep into the lives of his characters and evoked their varied experiences with remarkable insight and eloquence. In his sure hands it’s all been made new—the desperate grief, the wonder of a reclaimed life. Irreplaceable is a rich, poignant, and powerful book.”
—John Dalton, author of Heaven Lake
“This is a very intriguing novel about two families—one the family of a young organ donor in Iowa, the other of the recipient of one of those organs in Chicago. Though typically donations are kept confidential, an overheard conversation between doctors leads the curious and very grateful Janet, who received a very needed heart transplant to the names and addresses of her donor’s husband, who wants nothing whatsoever to do with her, and other, who embraces the chance to hold on to this last piece of her daughter. This is a very deep book, dealing with all sorts of tough things—the many forms of grief, the dynamics of organ donation on both the donors and the recipients and their families, dealing with chronic illness, the nature of gratitude and responsibility, and much more. The common thread seems to be how we deal with choices—both the ones we make and the ones that others do. Lovely obviously poured a lot of research into this book and it rings true on every page. This book will really make you think.”
—JBlem
