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The Tell-Tale Heart
A man’s life and his capacity for love mysteriously changes after a heart transplant in this dramatic and affecting novel—as provocative and poignant as the works of Jodi Picoult, Jojo Moyes, and Alice Sebold—from the acclaimed Orange Prize nominee and author of Lucky Bunny.
After years of excessive drink and sex, Patrick’s heart has collapsed. Only fifty, he has been given six months to live. But a tragic accident involving a teenager and a motorcycle gives the university professor a second chance. He receives the boy’s heart in a transplant, and by this miracle of science, two strangers are forever linked.
Though Patrick’s body accepts his new heart, his old life seems to reject him. Bored by the things that once enticed him, he begins to look for meaning in his experience. Discovering that his donor was a local boy named Drew Beamish, he becomes intensely curious about Drew’s life and the influences that shaped him-from the eighteenth-century ancestor involved in a labor riot to the bleak beauty of the Cambridgeshire countryside in which he was raised. Patrick longs to know the story of this heart that is now his own.
In this intriguing and deeply absorbing story, Jill Dawson weaves together the lives and loves of three vibrant characters connected by fate to explore questions of life after death, the nature of the soul, the unseen forces that connect us, and the symbolic power of the heart.
After years of excessive drink and sex, Patrick’s heart has collapsed. Only fifty, he has been given six months to live. But a tragic accident involving a teenager and a motorcycle gives the university professor a second chance. He receives the boy’s heart in a transplant, and by this miracle of science, two strangers are forever linked.
Though Patrick’s body accepts his new heart, his old life seems to reject him. Bored by the things that once enticed him, he begins to look for meaning in his experience. Discovering that his donor was a local boy named Drew Beamish, he becomes intensely curious about Drew’s life and the influences that shaped him-from the eighteenth-century ancestor involved in a labor riot to the bleak beauty of the Cambridgeshire countryside in which he was raised. Patrick longs to know the story of this heart that is now his own.
In this intriguing and deeply absorbing story, Jill Dawson weaves together the lives and loves of three vibrant characters connected by fate to explore questions of life after death, the nature of the soul, the unseen forces that connect us, and the symbolic power of the heart.
256 pages, Paperback
First published February 13, 2014
13 people are currently reading
653 people want to read
About the author
Jill Dawson
42 books98 followersJill Dawson was born in Durham and grew up in Staffordshire, Essex and Yorkshire. She read American Studies at the University of Nottingham, then took a series of short-term jobs in London before studying for an MA in Writing at Sheffield Hallam University. In 1997 she was the British Council Writing Fellow at Amherst College, Massachussets.
Her writing life began as a poet, her poems being published in a variety of small press magazines, and in one pamphlet collection, White Fish with Painted Nails (1990). She won an Eric Gregory Award for her poetry in 1992.
She edited several books for Virago, including The Virago Book of Wicked Verse (1992) and The Virago Book of Love Letters (1994). She has also edited a collection of short stories, School Tales: Stories by Young Women (1990), and with co-editor Margo Daly, Wild Ways: New Stories about Women on the Road (1998) and Gas and Air: Tales of Pregnancy and Birth (2002). She is the author of one book of non-fiction for teenagers, How Do I Look? (1991), which deals with the subject of self-esteem.
Jill Dawson is the author of five novels: Trick of the Light (1996); Magpie (1998), for which she won a London Arts Board New Writers Award; Fred and Edie (2000); Wild Boy (2003); and most recently, Watch Me Disappear (2006). Fred and Edie is based on the historic murder trial of Thompson and Bywaters, and was shortlisted for the 2000 Whitbread Novel Award and the 2001 Orange Prize for Fiction.
Her next novel, The Great Lover, is due for publication in early 2009.
Jill Dawson has taught Creative Writing for many years and was recently the Creative Writing Fellow at the University of East Anglia. She lives with her family in the Cambridgeshire Fens.
Her writing life began as a poet, her poems being published in a variety of small press magazines, and in one pamphlet collection, White Fish with Painted Nails (1990). She won an Eric Gregory Award for her poetry in 1992.
She edited several books for Virago, including The Virago Book of Wicked Verse (1992) and The Virago Book of Love Letters (1994). She has also edited a collection of short stories, School Tales: Stories by Young Women (1990), and with co-editor Margo Daly, Wild Ways: New Stories about Women on the Road (1998) and Gas and Air: Tales of Pregnancy and Birth (2002). She is the author of one book of non-fiction for teenagers, How Do I Look? (1991), which deals with the subject of self-esteem.
Jill Dawson is the author of five novels: Trick of the Light (1996); Magpie (1998), for which she won a London Arts Board New Writers Award; Fred and Edie (2000); Wild Boy (2003); and most recently, Watch Me Disappear (2006). Fred and Edie is based on the historic murder trial of Thompson and Bywaters, and was shortlisted for the 2000 Whitbread Novel Award and the 2001 Orange Prize for Fiction.
Her next novel, The Great Lover, is due for publication in early 2009.
Jill Dawson has taught Creative Writing for many years and was recently the Creative Writing Fellow at the University of East Anglia. She lives with her family in the Cambridgeshire Fens.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
February 27, 2017
(2.5) Fifty-year-old Patrick is a philandering professor with a dodgy heart. He’s saved by the death of a teenage boy in a motorbike accident in rural Cambridgeshire. By accident he learns the identity of his donor and is haunted by the thought of Drew Beamish, dead on his sixteenth birthday. He even seems to intuit things about the boy’s ancestry via dreams about hangman’s nooses and bales of hay on fire. Dawson brings in Drew and his family history through alternating sections of first-person narration, several from Drew and one from Willie Beamiss, a real historical figure who lived in Napoleonic times and was part of a riot that led to the gallows for some of its participants.
Patrick’s transplant coordinator is open to the mystical idea that a donor heart might carry its owner’s memories and personality and transmit them to the recipient. But what would that mean for Patrick, given that we learn Drew isn’t a wholly innocent kid? Is he going to become a generically nicer person to his ex-wife and children? And is that because of some strange alchemy to do with his heart, or just the effect of having a brush with death?
Although each section is fluidly written and the book is a quick read overall, I didn’t think Dawson pulled the various strands together very well, and the Drew story line was far too similar to Notes on a Scandal. This stops short of a full-on ghost story, especially given the Poe-honoring title, such that the little moments of would-be creepy connection fail to thrill. A disappointment after my great first experience with Dawson (The Crime Writer) last year.
Patrick’s transplant coordinator is open to the mystical idea that a donor heart might carry its owner’s memories and personality and transmit them to the recipient. But what would that mean for Patrick, given that we learn Drew isn’t a wholly innocent kid? Is he going to become a generically nicer person to his ex-wife and children? And is that because of some strange alchemy to do with his heart, or just the effect of having a brush with death?
Although each section is fluidly written and the book is a quick read overall, I didn’t think Dawson pulled the various strands together very well, and the Drew story line was far too similar to Notes on a Scandal. This stops short of a full-on ghost story, especially given the Poe-honoring title, such that the little moments of would-be creepy connection fail to thrill. A disappointment after my great first experience with Dawson (The Crime Writer) last year.
February 8, 2015
Original review can be found at http://kristineandterri.blogspot.ca/2...
I received an advanced readers copy from Harper Perennial via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
I have to be honest as much as I hate it. I tried, I really tried to like this book. Page after page I searched for something to hang on to. Something that would peak my interest and give me something positive to discuss. I just couldn't find it. The characters weren't likeable and the plot was dull and all over the map. In fact, I found it difficult and painful to get through. 256 pages is a short book in my opinion and it took me over a week to finish it. It just wasn't for me but I do encourage others to form their own opinions. Maybe I was just having a bad week??
I received an advanced readers copy from Harper Perennial via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
I have to be honest as much as I hate it. I tried, I really tried to like this book. Page after page I searched for something to hang on to. Something that would peak my interest and give me something positive to discuss. I just couldn't find it. The characters weren't likeable and the plot was dull and all over the map. In fact, I found it difficult and painful to get through. 256 pages is a short book in my opinion and it took me over a week to finish it. It just wasn't for me but I do encourage others to form their own opinions. Maybe I was just having a bad week??
January 22, 2015
I found this book surprising because it went in a completely different direction than I anticipated. When I first read the premise that Patrick, the recipient of a heart transplant from 16 year old Drew, I assumed there would be some psychological aspect about Patrick adopting some of Drew’s characteristics. No so much. Formerly a womanizing college professor (and somewhat of an arse), Patrick does mellow out a bit after his operation. When he learns of Drew’s identity, he doesn’t insert himself into Drew’s family or anything like that, but he does value the invisible bonds that have tied him to the young man’s existence.
There are a few alternating perspectives, primarily Patrick during his recovery, and Drew’s final year of life. The only thing that I didn’t care for in this book was the long historical element. As told by Drew’s 19th century ancestor, Willie Beamiss, I found his part of the narrative overlong and not terribly relevant to the overall story. The only thing it really added was to highlight the rebelliousness that runs in the family.
Otherwise, I really liked all of the characters, and how Patrick learns to appreciate the relationships he previously took advantage of (ex-wife, two grown kids) and the new friendships he’s developing (the transplant counselor, Drew’s mom). It wasn’t an overly-schmaltzy reflection on benefiting from a second chance in life. I enjoyed witnessing Patrick evolve into a more sympathetic version of himself.
I received a complimentary copy of this book via TLC Blog Tours.
There are a few alternating perspectives, primarily Patrick during his recovery, and Drew’s final year of life. The only thing that I didn’t care for in this book was the long historical element. As told by Drew’s 19th century ancestor, Willie Beamiss, I found his part of the narrative overlong and not terribly relevant to the overall story. The only thing it really added was to highlight the rebelliousness that runs in the family.
Otherwise, I really liked all of the characters, and how Patrick learns to appreciate the relationships he previously took advantage of (ex-wife, two grown kids) and the new friendships he’s developing (the transplant counselor, Drew’s mom). It wasn’t an overly-schmaltzy reflection on benefiting from a second chance in life. I enjoyed witnessing Patrick evolve into a more sympathetic version of himself.
I received a complimentary copy of this book via TLC Blog Tours.
February 15, 2015
My Rating:
3.5
Favorite Quotes:
“There was a moment when I was cracked open on that bed, emptied. Rigged up, machines doing my living for me. Awaiting. My heart lifted out and somewhere else. I shouldn’t be alive; I must be monstrous, or magical. No human being can have their heart scooped out of their ribcage, be without it, while they await another, and live, can they? It’s inconceivable.”
“Where do Feelings live? Inside us surely, in our hearts. Where do they end, where do they stop? Pa’s feelings sometimes made such a vivid spark in my nature that I believe I shall not forget it in my grave.”
My Review:
I struggled with this book. The culture and vernacular are not my own and I was often confused and often at sea, unable to comprehend what was transpiring on an entire page. Thank goodness for Wikipedia! The story is written from several different POVs, and I am still scratching my head over the ending when they seem to have merged. Large chunks of the book appear to be written as a stream of consciousness, with incomplete sentences and often flitting from thought to thought, which was sometimes strikingly insightful, sometimes rather brilliant, and sometimes – to me anyway - incomprehensible. I was, and still am, intrigued by the premise of the story, and the events and characters were of interest to me, I just had a problem with the execution.
3.5
Favorite Quotes:
“There was a moment when I was cracked open on that bed, emptied. Rigged up, machines doing my living for me. Awaiting. My heart lifted out and somewhere else. I shouldn’t be alive; I must be monstrous, or magical. No human being can have their heart scooped out of their ribcage, be without it, while they await another, and live, can they? It’s inconceivable.”
“Where do Feelings live? Inside us surely, in our hearts. Where do they end, where do they stop? Pa’s feelings sometimes made such a vivid spark in my nature that I believe I shall not forget it in my grave.”
My Review:
I struggled with this book. The culture and vernacular are not my own and I was often confused and often at sea, unable to comprehend what was transpiring on an entire page. Thank goodness for Wikipedia! The story is written from several different POVs, and I am still scratching my head over the ending when they seem to have merged. Large chunks of the book appear to be written as a stream of consciousness, with incomplete sentences and often flitting from thought to thought, which was sometimes strikingly insightful, sometimes rather brilliant, and sometimes – to me anyway - incomprehensible. I was, and still am, intrigued by the premise of the story, and the events and characters were of interest to me, I just had a problem with the execution.
March 17, 2015
I won this book from The Reading Room in exchange for an honest review.
I found "The Tell-Tale Heart" to be a nicely written story but a bit slow in the beginning then I became more interested in the story and characters as I got further along in the book. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a heartfelt and thought provoking story.
I found "The Tell-Tale Heart" to be a nicely written story but a bit slow in the beginning then I became more interested in the story and characters as I got further along in the book. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a heartfelt and thought provoking story.
August 12, 2020
I thought this was a true masterpiece of writing. Read it entirely in one sitting! It just really connected with me and made me very emotional reading it. I loved the historical part of it as well, great to include that. It was an amazing novel!
September 16, 2014
Patrick Robson, a history professor with thirty-odd years of over-straining both his literal and metaphorical heart, wakes up in hospital following major surgery with his ex-wife at his bedside. Two hundred years apart, two teenage boys experience their sexual awakening under the wide skies of the Fenlands, and discover how the odds are stacked against those not born into wealth in cash or land. What connects the three main characters is that Drew Beamish was carrying a donor card when he was killed in a motorcycling accident, and Patrick has received his heart, while Willie Beamiss, only just escaping hanging or deportation for rioting, is one of Drew’s ancestors, and commemorated in the local museum.
Each of these strands is interesting in its own right: I had a sense that, like Pat Barker in Regeneration, Jill Dawson had had fun portraying Patrick’s view of women:
This habit women have – a role Helen often claimed not to want – of telling me what I’m feeling. Tremendously helpful. Like having an interpreter at hand to translate you to yourself. (p127)
The historical strand in particular was rich in its depiction of the countryside and the poverty-stricken family’s attachment to the land and the modern teenager reminded me of the major omission from my post on fictional schools: Zoe Heller’s marvellous novel, Notes on a Scandal. And I enjoyed discovering the reverberations between the different threads. Yet I also felt that this novel was trying to cover too much and two, rather than three, interlinked storylines might have worked better.
Continues at http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/annecdo...
Each of these strands is interesting in its own right: I had a sense that, like Pat Barker in Regeneration, Jill Dawson had had fun portraying Patrick’s view of women:
This habit women have – a role Helen often claimed not to want – of telling me what I’m feeling. Tremendously helpful. Like having an interpreter at hand to translate you to yourself. (p127)
The historical strand in particular was rich in its depiction of the countryside and the poverty-stricken family’s attachment to the land and the modern teenager reminded me of the major omission from my post on fictional schools: Zoe Heller’s marvellous novel, Notes on a Scandal. And I enjoyed discovering the reverberations between the different threads. Yet I also felt that this novel was trying to cover too much and two, rather than three, interlinked storylines might have worked better.
Continues at http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/annecdo...
February 8, 2015
In "The Tell-Tale Heart," Patrick gets a new lease on life after he has a heart transplant. Patrick is a professor who has spent his life passionately studying and perhaps neglecting his personal life. His family life isn't great and being able to essentially get another chance has really made him think about previous choices and whether or not they were the right ones. This book also explores whether or not the heart has some sort of internal memory. Not only is Patrick the focus of this story but Drew, the teenaged donor, and one of his ancestors become a part of the story as well.
This story felt very experimental in a lot of ways. The connections between the three main characters are tenuous and we do not really get to see the overall connection between all three of the characters until the very end of the book. I wish that we would have been able to see a little bit more of a connection sooner as I think it would have helped me to connect with both the stories and the characters a little quicker. While Patrick's story is interspersed throughout the book, Willie and Drew's stories are packed into one section for each character pretty much. All three of these characters are very different but they are connected to some degree in the way that they see the world, which is sort of cool.
I did really enjoy the writing in this book. There are some really interesting and good bits of writing in this book that kept me reading. Overall, I liked the writing and would try another book by this author but I would have liked more of a connection to the story.
This story felt very experimental in a lot of ways. The connections between the three main characters are tenuous and we do not really get to see the overall connection between all three of the characters until the very end of the book. I wish that we would have been able to see a little bit more of a connection sooner as I think it would have helped me to connect with both the stories and the characters a little quicker. While Patrick's story is interspersed throughout the book, Willie and Drew's stories are packed into one section for each character pretty much. All three of these characters are very different but they are connected to some degree in the way that they see the world, which is sort of cool.
I did really enjoy the writing in this book. There are some really interesting and good bits of writing in this book that kept me reading. Overall, I liked the writing and would try another book by this author but I would have liked more of a connection to the story.
February 5, 2014
Does the heart have a memory? Is it - as the ancients thought - the real home of the soul? There have been some strange instances of those who, after a successful heart-transplant, have noticed memories surfacing that are not theirs; of personality changes; changes in taste and preference, as if the organ's owner were trying to assert their own being alongside that of the recipient. It's a premise tailor made for a cracking good story, but sadly, for me, The Tell-Tale Heart is not it.
Jill Dawson makes a decent stab at it, setting the tale in the strange bleakness of the Fens, placing the histories of donor and recipient side by side (though the sudden leap back into history for just one chapter didn't work. It seemed shoehorned in, especially when that character never re-emerged in the story. Its inclusion seemed a little pointless, a case of 'I've done the research and I have to get it in somewhere'), but I can't say I was especially riveted by the stories of either louche, selfish, 50 year old user Patrick or troubled teenager Drew. It was all just too ordinary - which, I suppose, was deliberate, it is generally deeply ordinary folk who end up in these situations, but do we really want to read a novel about them?
It wasn't a bad book, it was well-written, the characters well drawn. It was just a bit too Woman's Hour Book of the Week, too kitchen sink and pedestrian, to ever catch fire for me.
Jill Dawson makes a decent stab at it, setting the tale in the strange bleakness of the Fens, placing the histories of donor and recipient side by side (though the sudden leap back into history for just one chapter didn't work. It seemed shoehorned in, especially when that character never re-emerged in the story. Its inclusion seemed a little pointless, a case of 'I've done the research and I have to get it in somewhere'), but I can't say I was especially riveted by the stories of either louche, selfish, 50 year old user Patrick or troubled teenager Drew. It was all just too ordinary - which, I suppose, was deliberate, it is generally deeply ordinary folk who end up in these situations, but do we really want to read a novel about them?
It wasn't a bad book, it was well-written, the characters well drawn. It was just a bit too Woman's Hour Book of the Week, too kitchen sink and pedestrian, to ever catch fire for me.
August 24, 2015
I received an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.
Patrick is a 50-year-old, womanizing professor. He has been given 6 months to live, but after a 16-year-old boy dies in a motorcycle accident, he is given a heart transplant and a second chance at life. As he recovers, Patrick is no longer interested in his old life and seeks to find information about the boy whose heart he received.
The book kept trying to insinuate that Patrick's changing interests could be caused by muscle memory of the heart he received. However, it seemed more like getting a second chance at life was a wake-up call for him not to continue the way he had been living.
The book goes back and forth between Patrick's story and those of Drew Beamish, whose heart he received, and Willie Beamiss, Drew's ancestor from the early 1800s.
The book was interesting at parts and seemed to drag on at other parts. Overall, I liked the book but would not recommend it as a must-read.
Patrick is a 50-year-old, womanizing professor. He has been given 6 months to live, but after a 16-year-old boy dies in a motorcycle accident, he is given a heart transplant and a second chance at life. As he recovers, Patrick is no longer interested in his old life and seeks to find information about the boy whose heart he received.
The book kept trying to insinuate that Patrick's changing interests could be caused by muscle memory of the heart he received. However, it seemed more like getting a second chance at life was a wake-up call for him not to continue the way he had been living.
The book goes back and forth between Patrick's story and those of Drew Beamish, whose heart he received, and Willie Beamiss, Drew's ancestor from the early 1800s.
The book was interesting at parts and seemed to drag on at other parts. Overall, I liked the book but would not recommend it as a must-read.
October 30, 2015
I liked the main character, Patrick, immediately - well, I suppose "liked" isn't quite the right word since he's adulterous and big-headed, but his character did come to life right from the first page and I wanted to know how things would turn out for him.
Then I got to Part Two - and it really, really annoyed me! I was prepared to read chapters written from the donor's POV - but to get a whole big section of the book devoted to his several-times-great grandfather just seemed totally pointless. Sure, it was atmospheric and well written but that irritation at being taken off-track spoiled it for me.
I felt as though the historical stuff had been shoehorned in just to pad out the book - without it, it would've been too short to publish!
Then I got to Part Two - and it really, really annoyed me! I was prepared to read chapters written from the donor's POV - but to get a whole big section of the book devoted to his several-times-great grandfather just seemed totally pointless. Sure, it was atmospheric and well written but that irritation at being taken off-track spoiled it for me.
I felt as though the historical stuff had been shoehorned in just to pad out the book - without it, it would've been too short to publish!
April 15, 2014
Anyone thinking this might be a gothic horror tale along the lines of the short story of the same name by Poe, will be disappointed. It's a moving enough tale of tragedy, loss and some sort of epiphany for the main character, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's true that the main character isn't easy to like-self-absorbed, immature and somewhat shallow-but it's not necessary to like him to follow him on his journey to some sort of self-awareness-in fact it helps not to! The ending is left open somewhat, with an interesting little twist about the donor, but a very good read nonetheless.
February 18, 2014
A very original way of telling a story, however it took me far too long to warm up to the characters and gain interest in the story. It certainly picked up towards thr end, but overall I can't say I was blown away.
April 9, 2017
The writing in this book beats like the heart at the centre of its story in a strong, steady celebration of life. Set in the Fens region around Ely in England this book is also a celebration of place, of attachment to where we live and to where our ancestors lived. It is the story of a middle-aged university professor who received in a transplant the heart of a 16-year-old boy killed in a motorbike accident. With his new heart he begins to change in subtle ways and he becomes intrigued by the boy whose heart lives on inside him. The novel reveals the strange parallels between the life of the boy and one of his forebears. Both characters convey on the pages of this book the sheer joy of being alive, the strength of our emotional attachment to others, and the pleasures to be found in nature. Their stories are written with such intensity it is easy to believe that a heart that contained such a history and such a strong life force can change an ageing man who has led a less than exemplary life. The story of the professor's life is revealed in the aftermath of his heart operation over several sections alternated with blocks of text with the stories of the boy who donated his heart and his ancestor's part in a famous local historical event. Each section of the book rings with a strength of writing which makes it such a pleasure to read. The three parts come together at the end in a thoroughly satisfying way. This is one of those rare books where my pleasure in story and writing combined and, weeks after reading the book, I still think about the characters and their passion for life.
August 26, 2017
This is the story of a heart transplant recipient and that of the heart transplant donor. While I am intrigued by the seeming evidence that the heart has memory and transplant recipients experience the memories of their donors, I didn't feel this tale gave that quite enough play. It was there but not to the extent that I would have liked. Also, this story lacks a bit of believability both with the account of the medical experience of receiving a heart transplant and with the backstory of the donor. Having said all this there is still something ever so interesting about the experiences of heart recipients.
August 27, 2018
Beautiful little gem of a book. Dawson is such an elegant writer taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary. Ostensibly this is a straightforward tale of a man having a heart transplant but she extrapolates the themes of love and loss and manages to engender reader empathy for the redemption of a wasted life. Both sad and uplifting, Dawson treats these lives seen across several time frames with sensitivity and delicacy, presenting us with fallible and yet life enhancing humans. I would have scored it 4.5 if I could, as it is close to perfect
March 26, 2018
I used to think Jill Dawson could do no wrong, but I found her more recent novels falling a little flat for me. I still like them as much as many novels I read, but they don't reach much above that level. And I don't really know why. I liked the premise – and the balance between the past and the present could have been wonderful. But it was just okay, and at times I felt like I was reading and Ian McEwan, which is no bad thing, except that I wanted to read a Jill Dawson.
September 11, 2020
3.5! Really enjoyed reading a book set in the area I grew up in, the Fens. St Ives even features! I liked the descriptive prose and turns of phrase. Lots of questions raised about life and love and death in this unusual story, with a thread of history running through it going back to the Littleport Riots. I'm marking it down a little for its main character, who lacked a little depth and didn't quite come alive for me on the page.
June 9, 2018
Patrick Robinson has received a new heart on Papworth Hospital. But what is the story of the donor? It was interesting to read some of the historical aspect of the area but I'm sorry to say that I wasn't a fan of any of the characters. Patrick is rather a selfish man and doesn't care who he hurts with his philandering.
June 15, 2019
Patrick has lived his life taking advantage of women and living it fully. When he learns that his heart is failing and he has only months to live he is offered a chance at life with a heart transplant. As he adapts to life and learns more about the donor he starts to change. He learns about the heart, emotions, and feelings as he starts to live again.
April 24, 2019
Considering the subject matter, I was hoping for a little more in depth of the recipient of the heart. I don’t feel his character was developed as much as he could be to engage of the reader with the story
May 1, 2019
Curiously compelling...can a transplant recipient take on features or characteristics of the donor? I wasn't entirely convinced about the swapping between timelines and became completely confused at one point about who was the narrator. Still, an absorbing and thought-provoking read.
August 3, 2020
I liked the descriptions of the Fens and some of the historical and cultural details were interesting. I didn't warm to any of the characters though and felt rather disappointed by the end. I think there was potential for more filled-out characters and storyline.
September 3, 2021
I found The Tell-Tale Heart absorbing. There is a subtle strangeness about the heart's backstory - delving into its Fenland ancestors' hard lives. The whole story being carefully worked around the academic who receives the life-saving heart and a lot more.
December 16, 2022
What effect does it have on your life when you receive a donated heart? You will be fully absorbed in the life of the receiver, and the historical family of the donor. As usual, jill Dawson mixes meticulously researched historical facts with convincing fiction-- I think she is a brilliant writer.
June 14, 2024
This is a quick read and I had a large print book which was even better
Nice prose and interesting topic but I never warmed to Patrick who received a new heart . The backstory was fascinating and I liked the history
Nice prose and interesting topic but I never warmed to Patrick who received a new heart . The backstory was fascinating and I liked the history
June 13, 2023
I really enjoy Dawson's writing style. It took me a minute to get into this one, and I'm not entirely sold on the ending, but it is still undoubtedly a well-written novel.
October 31, 2017
I struggled keeping track of where I was in this book. Perhaps better placement of the different parts of the book would help. But there had to be a better way to end the book as it left me totally confused and not really having a ending to any of the 3 story parts..
Patrick receives a heart transplant of Drew Beamish a teen boy with ties to a tragic story of the 18th century Beamish family.
I won this book on Goodreads.
Patrick receives a heart transplant of Drew Beamish a teen boy with ties to a tragic story of the 18th century Beamish family.
I won this book on Goodreads.
February 8, 2015
As Jill Dawson's The Tell-Tale Heart begins, we meet Patrick Robson, a professor and philanderer who has just had the good fortune to have a successful heart transplant. As he recovers, he becomes transfixed not only by his donor, Andrew Beamish's life, but with the more distant history of Drew's ancestors, farm laborers and shoemakers who were implicated in the Littleport Riots of 1816. As Patrick rediscovers the life he had been in danger of losing, the stories of Drew Beamish and Willie Beamiss entwine with his own, in a way that is distinctly difficult to explain but which make for a compelling novel.
Dawson's flawed characters are ordinary, at best, but on the whole generally unlikeable, yet she portrays them in a gentle, sympathetic way that allows readers to look past their unpleasant surfaces and understand their hearts. In fact, her male narrators are so utterly convincing that, at times, it's easy to forget that the author is a woman. Patrick is a prickly sort, a womanizer who had a child with another woman while still married to his wife. He's curious, but not terribly sentimental about the origins of his newly acquired heart. He's grateful with a sense of not deserving a new lease on life. He doesn't believe all the hype about a new heart changing his preferences or his personality. The surgery and its aftermath are well handled, in that, while that Patrick doesn't change utterly, it's obvious he's going through something profound that's working a slow, realistic change in him. He's discovering things about his new life that he never bothered to consider in his old and finally seeing his past from a perspective other than his own.
Drew, the heart's donor, is a sexually frustrated miscreant of sorts who just lost his father to a farming accident and is attempting to romance his much older teacher. He's haunted by the story of his distant ancestor who was caught up in the Littleport Riots of 1816, whose story Dawson also weaves into her novel. He's definitely not a very lovable character in his own right, but as his world crumbles a little more each day under the hopelessness of a future eking out a living in the Fens just like his father and his father's father and so on, even he becomes a character that we can understand and even relate to as he fails to outpace the frustration that pursues him that even he can hardly put into words.
The Tell-Tale Heart is no warm, fuzzy sentimental story about a heart that makes its way from tragedy to renewal, rather it is a much more penetrating look at interconnectedness between a boy and his forbear, between a man and the boy whose heart gives him a chance to carve out a more meaningful life. It's a story about patterns repeating, about love that dooms and love that saves. The Tell-Tale Heart takes aim at the heart's ability, both literal and figurative, to sustain us, and it definitely hits the mark.
Dawson's flawed characters are ordinary, at best, but on the whole generally unlikeable, yet she portrays them in a gentle, sympathetic way that allows readers to look past their unpleasant surfaces and understand their hearts. In fact, her male narrators are so utterly convincing that, at times, it's easy to forget that the author is a woman. Patrick is a prickly sort, a womanizer who had a child with another woman while still married to his wife. He's curious, but not terribly sentimental about the origins of his newly acquired heart. He's grateful with a sense of not deserving a new lease on life. He doesn't believe all the hype about a new heart changing his preferences or his personality. The surgery and its aftermath are well handled, in that, while that Patrick doesn't change utterly, it's obvious he's going through something profound that's working a slow, realistic change in him. He's discovering things about his new life that he never bothered to consider in his old and finally seeing his past from a perspective other than his own.
Drew, the heart's donor, is a sexually frustrated miscreant of sorts who just lost his father to a farming accident and is attempting to romance his much older teacher. He's haunted by the story of his distant ancestor who was caught up in the Littleport Riots of 1816, whose story Dawson also weaves into her novel. He's definitely not a very lovable character in his own right, but as his world crumbles a little more each day under the hopelessness of a future eking out a living in the Fens just like his father and his father's father and so on, even he becomes a character that we can understand and even relate to as he fails to outpace the frustration that pursues him that even he can hardly put into words.
The Tell-Tale Heart is no warm, fuzzy sentimental story about a heart that makes its way from tragedy to renewal, rather it is a much more penetrating look at interconnectedness between a boy and his forbear, between a man and the boy whose heart gives him a chance to carve out a more meaningful life. It's a story about patterns repeating, about love that dooms and love that saves. The Tell-Tale Heart takes aim at the heart's ability, both literal and figurative, to sustain us, and it definitely hits the mark.
August 20, 2014
I received a copy of this title from Bookbridgr.com in return for an honest review.
Patrick has had heart transplant surgery. A fifty year old disgraced Professor, divorced and insular, he wakes up after the surgery and subtle changes become slowly apparent. Obviously, the physical changes are there as the new organ tries to find it's place within its strange surroundings, but there are also more emotional changes. Memories, feelings and dreams that are unusual and surreal to Patrick.
When the transplant co-ordinator lets slip that the donor was a sixteen year old boy, it begins to make a bit more sense. He know has emotions that he has never truly felt. Compassion, love and basic understanding. Will he dismiss these new found feelings or revert to his dismissive, hard former self?
The story is told in four parts. The donor's ancestors are part of the tale, linking Patrick's dreams to the past. The story of sixteen year old Drew and his love for an older woman and the events leading up to his death. The reader is then brought back to Patrick and sees how he copes after major surgery and how his former life comes to the forefront of his current one.
This is my first time reading Jill Dawson and I had no pre-conceptions. I knew from the first chapter that the writer is one of high caliber and deserved her many awards from the literary world. The characters were well drawn and deeply emotive. Their inner thoughts were intense and honest and showed their true nature. Patrick reminded me of people I have encountered over the years and were so narcissistic that I often wondered how they slept at night. It seems entirely possible that the only thing that would shake someone like this is a life threatening surgery. But will it change them enough that they feel the organ is being used to its best potential?
Drew, the donor, had a short life but reading his narrative made the book come alive. So achingly real, his emotions were beautifully described and gave the novel the bite that it needed after a slow start. His ancestors story was informative and like Drew's love for his forbidden love, the 1800s forbidden love was injected with sexual tension, longing and desire. The history of the Fenland are in England was not really of interest to me but the stories of the people were.
This short novel would not be to everyone's taste, but if you are fan of detailed prose and literary genre, I think this one is for you......
Patrick has had heart transplant surgery. A fifty year old disgraced Professor, divorced and insular, he wakes up after the surgery and subtle changes become slowly apparent. Obviously, the physical changes are there as the new organ tries to find it's place within its strange surroundings, but there are also more emotional changes. Memories, feelings and dreams that are unusual and surreal to Patrick.
When the transplant co-ordinator lets slip that the donor was a sixteen year old boy, it begins to make a bit more sense. He know has emotions that he has never truly felt. Compassion, love and basic understanding. Will he dismiss these new found feelings or revert to his dismissive, hard former self?
The story is told in four parts. The donor's ancestors are part of the tale, linking Patrick's dreams to the past. The story of sixteen year old Drew and his love for an older woman and the events leading up to his death. The reader is then brought back to Patrick and sees how he copes after major surgery and how his former life comes to the forefront of his current one.
This is my first time reading Jill Dawson and I had no pre-conceptions. I knew from the first chapter that the writer is one of high caliber and deserved her many awards from the literary world. The characters were well drawn and deeply emotive. Their inner thoughts were intense and honest and showed their true nature. Patrick reminded me of people I have encountered over the years and were so narcissistic that I often wondered how they slept at night. It seems entirely possible that the only thing that would shake someone like this is a life threatening surgery. But will it change them enough that they feel the organ is being used to its best potential?
Drew, the donor, had a short life but reading his narrative made the book come alive. So achingly real, his emotions were beautifully described and gave the novel the bite that it needed after a slow start. His ancestors story was informative and like Drew's love for his forbidden love, the 1800s forbidden love was injected with sexual tension, longing and desire. The history of the Fenland are in England was not really of interest to me but the stories of the people were.
This short novel would not be to everyone's taste, but if you are fan of detailed prose and literary genre, I think this one is for you......
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