The Story of a Heart

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025

BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE SPECTATOR, NEW STATESMAN, NEW SCIENTIST, AND PROSPECT

'What a book . . . The perfect book' Chris Evans on Virgin Radio

'Profoundly moving and at the same time wildly inspiring' Rob Delaney

'Rachel Clarke's finest book yet' Financial Times

'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

'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

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 a young girl's heart and explores a history of remarkable medical innovations , stretching back over a century and involving the knowledge and dedication not just of surgeons but of countless physicians, immunologists, nurses and scientists.

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER DEAR LIFE AND BREATHTAKING, A MAJOR TV DRAMA

Rachel Clarke tells the selfless story of the extended and extraordinary life of this heart, and how it changed organ donation for ever. This unconventional narrative biography fizzes with respectful, indefatigable and eloquent respect for life. Unforgettable The Times, Books of the Year
Profoundly moving and at the same time wildly inspiring. A beautiful, humane book... Even hearing a sliver of this story would make you hunger to learn every possible detail, and rare is the writer who could pull it together so beautifully Rob Delaney
The Story of a Heart is 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. A story of death - and life, and how one incredible family gifted a miracle to another Christie Watson
An extraordinary story, beautifully told Adam Kay
Rachel Clarke [is] a physician who is also an uncommonly good writer... The Story of a Heart is never mawkish. It is instead a clear-eyed act of investigative journalism; Clarke knows her subject and does the legwork too Prospect
What a book . . . The perfect book Chris Evans on Virgin Radio
Telling this true story with dramatic pace, medical precision and characteristic warmth, The Story of a Heart is Rachel Clarke's finest book yet Financial Times
Clarke, the author of the superb Dear Life and the coruscating Covid expose Breathtaking, is the right person to tell the extraordinary story of how one family's grief was transformed into a lifesaving act of generosity. The Story of a Heart is tender and inspiring and displays all Clarke's usual compassion for the dead and why they deserve to be honoured Independent
Remarkable Cosmopolitan
The Story of a Heart is beautifully written and utterly vital iPaper
This is a gripping story of two remarkable families, a remarkable heart and a remarkable organ donor system, faultlessly told BGJP
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
Clarke could not have rendered this story more tenderly... this is humane writing The Times
As tense and nerve-racking as any thriller Mail on Sunday
A moving account Daily Mirror
The Story of a Heart makes for a compelling read, peppered with Clarke's often startlingly poetic descriptions and frequent detours into the fascinating history of transplantation Radio Times
Clarke brilliantly interweaves the tragic story that links the two children with that of the medical staff who looked after Keira in her final hours and those who helped her heart to give Max new life. It is obviously an incredibly emotional piece, but Clarke's ability to balance the children's stories with the medical ones offers some hope in a dark place Sunday Times
The extraordinary journey of a young girl's heart to a young boy's body is told in an accessible, humane way... There are moments, within this intricate tapestry, where Clarke's evocative, empathetic writing makes you catch your breath Guardian, Book of the Day
This emotional story explores how one bereaved family helped save the life of another child and looks at the medical advances over the years that made it all possible... 5 stars Sun
Rachel Clarke takes us deep into the drama, tragedy and triumph behind the modern miracle of a heart transplant. This is a unique and profoundly moving story of life and death Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2024
The subject matter is overwhelmingly emotional, yet Clarke approaches it with the clear-eyed rigour of an investigative journalist - tracking every step, every person, every scientific miracle involved in a heart transplant Prospect, Books of the Year

Dr Rachel Clarke is an NHS palliative care doctor and the author of three Sunday Times bestselling non-fiction books. The most recent of these, Breathtaking (2021), was adapted into an acclaimed television series, broadcast on ITV in 2024. It reveals how she and her colleagues confronted the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Dear Life (2020), depicting her work in an NHS hospice, was shortlisted for the 2020 Costa Biography Award and long-listed for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize. Your Life in My Hands (2017) documents life as a junior doctor. Before going to medical school, Rachel was a broadcast journalist. She produced and directed current affairs documentaries focusing on subjects such as Al Qaeda, the Iraq War and the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She continues to write regularly for the Guardian, Sunday Times, New Statesman and Lancet among others, and appears regularly on television and radio. Inspired by a visit to Ukraine during the conflict in late 2022, Rachel founded a UK-registered charity, Hospice Ukraine, which supports the work of local palliative care teams in Ukraine.

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