The French author, Maylis De Kerangal, wrote this novel about three 20 year old French men who go surfing in the middle of the night and on the way back they have a terrible accident and one man dies.
The book starts with the sentence: "The thing about Simon Limbres's heart, this human heart, is that from the moment of his birth, when its rhythm accelerated, as did the other hearts around it, in celebration of the event......................" . The sentence continues for more than a page.
Many of sentences are long and often are as poetic as this first one. You find yourself seeing this human, and his connection to his heart, differently. The story really is about his heart, his death, and the care and grief that follow. The heart and the event itself has a poetic feel to it because of the writers approach.
Bill Gates review this book and called it "A poetic novel about grief".
Kirkus review said "Doctors and other medical experts hasten to prepare a young man’s organs for transplant and reckon with the need to be both compassionate and precise in a hurry." The story of the heart and the young man are seen from the parents, friends, hospital staff, doctors, and even the body itself's experience with this tragic event. We share in the grief and the book is one you will not want to put down
