Three sisters and the heart between them.
Hearts We Leave Behind is a heart-tugging tale about love, loss, the bonds of sisterhood, and the power of forgiveness, woven around three memorable sisters who have nothing in common until they have everything…
Different flowers from the same garden, Stella (the doer), Daisy (the giver), and Willow (the thinker) share a typical soulful and stormy relationship growing up poor in rural Appalachia. But when one forsakes the others for fame and fortune, the bonds of sisterhood snap.
Now 40, heartless and impossibly ambitious Stella has it all: a successful NY-based company, a lavish apartment near Central Park, a fake British accent, and plenty of cash in the bank. But she has no friends or pets, not even a plant, and hasn’t spoken to her sisters in 18 years.
Daisy, the middle sister, remains deeply rooted in her country dirt and wouldn’t dream of leaving her beloved emerald forests. With a heart the size of a blue whale, she cares for her rebellious daughter, forgetful father, and drunken uncle, while fighting rumors she grows weed in her attic.
Willow, the youngest, wisest, and family’s sounding board since she was ten, became a psychiatrist. But no therapy could make her forget the sorrow that broke her parents’ hearts.
When a rare form of heart disease lands Stella at the top of a NY hospital transplant list, her life stalls only to come apart after the surgery. Her doctors say she only gained a new pump, not a new personality, but she feels that this heart isn’t just pushing blood through her body. It thinks, remembers, and questions the fancy fabric of her undernourished life, the choices she made, and herself. And above all, it wants to take her back to where she swore she’d never return: home.
She reinvented herself once, and now her new heart is making her do it again, but at what cost this time? And is it strong enough to redeem what has been lost?
Heartrending with unexpected humor, Hearts We Leave Behind will leave you soul-searching and self-questioning: if life gave you a second chance, would you change anything? Would you try and become a better version of yourself?
Buy your copy today!
Outside the US? Find the book in your country’s amazon
This is one of the most incredible stories I have ever read.
“This book stands right up there with the ageless classics. The author takes us on an incredible journey through the lives of one family and how lives can be irreparably changed by the hearts of others, both in the figurative sense and literally. Other reviewers have mentioned the incredible depth of knowledge shown in the science of transplants, and I agree. But this book is so much more. It’s an amazing journey and one I’m glad I took.
Wow. It will make you laugh and make you cry. It’s that powerful. I loved the ending.”
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
– Jan Anderegg, Author of the Julu series