Irreplaceable

By Stephen Lovely
Voice, $24.99, 344 pages

While one life is suddenly and mercilessly plucked from the Earth in a tragic accident, another is single-handedly and miraculously saved. In Stephen Lovely’s heartfelt debut novel, Irreplaceable, the emotions and interpersonal connections that are formed by a single heart transplant are explored from both sides of the scalpel. A tragic car accident has left Alex with a dead wife, a grieving mother-in-law, and thank you cards from the woman who now has his dead wife’s heart beating in her chest. Janet, nursing a now healthy heart, struggles to deal with her deep sense of gratitude which is only matched by her deep sense of guilt. A mother tries to keep her daughter alive by forming a relationship with the recipients of her child’s heart while the man responsible for Isabel’s death teeters on a path to absolution.

This novel is a provocative read, rife with insight into the feelings of the many people who are affected by organ donation. Lovely writes with a sensitivity that is remarkable and telling of his eye-opening time spent as a night clerk in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in a hospital in Iowa. Divided into four parts, each chapter switches between the four characters, and their four lives intersect seamlessly and keep the pages turning. Lovely examines the grief and despair felt by the family who lost their loved one and juxtaposes it with the joy and gratitude of the recipient’s side, providing a sometimes jarringly honest and indisputably real look at the scattered emotions and intense grieving process that occurs when a blessing is born from such deep tragedy. I look forward to Stephen Lovely’s future novels which I am sure will be just as emotionally charged as Irreplaceable.

Reviewed by Jenna Scancarello