Irreplaceable by Stephen Lovely

From the Publisher

Alex Voorman, a cerebral thirty-year-old archaeologist, is married to the woman of his dreams -- a beautiful, ambitious botanist named Isabel. When Isabel is killed by a reckless driver, Alex reluctantly consents to donate her heart.
Janet Corcoran, a young, headstrong mother of two and an art teacher at an inner-city school in Chicago, is sick with heart disease. She is on the waiting list for a transplant, but her chances are slim. She watches the Weather Channel, secretly praying for foul weather and car accidents. The day Isabel dies, Janet gets her wish.

Flash forward a year. Janet sends Alex a letter. She'd like to learn something about the woman who saved her life. But Alex isn't interested in talking to the recipient of his dead wife's heart. Since Isabel's accident, he's still grief-stricken. Meanwhile, a local blues musician named Jasper, the man responsible for Isabel's death, attempts to atone for his misdeed.

Irreplaceable is the story of what happens after the transplant -- not only to Alex but within the concentric circles of family that spiral outward from him and from Janet. Stephen Lovely takes us vividly inside the lives of these characters to reveal their true intentions -- however misguided -- and gives us a stunning debut novel of loss and love.

Publishers Weekly

Lovely's debut novel, a touching journey of the heart, tracks what happens to two Midwestern families after a death and a gift of life. Archeologist Alex Voormann and his plant biologist wife, Isabel, had a pleasant enough life in Iowa until Isabel was struck and killed while riding her bicycle. Alex reluctantly complies with her wish to be an organ donor, which saves the life of Janet Corcoran, a 34-year-old Chicago art teacher and mother of two. Lovely thoughtfully weaves the tales of these two families together, tracing the realities of love and loss of all kinds as Alex attempts to move on, the man who was driving the truck that killed Isabel begins popping up in unexpected places, and Janet seeks out Alex and Isabel's mother to thank them and express her guilt and empathy. Lovely does a great job of staying out of sappy melodrama as the gravity of Isabel's death pulls the cast together in memorable fashion. The delicate handling of loaded material, attention to detail and depth of character make this a standout. (Feb.)

Beth E. Andersen - Library Journal

The last thing in the world grieving Iowa widower Alex Voorman wants is to hear from the woman who now has his wife's heart. It's been a year since his beloved Isabel was killed in a truck/bicycle accident, and he's barely moving on. Close to his mother-in-law, Bernice, he resents her push for him to speak with Chicagoan Janet Corcoran, who was near death until she received Isabel's heart. First-time novelist Lovely writes unflinchingly of the medical and emotional realities that attend a heart transplant and the terrible toll it can take on recipients and their families, who are desperate to stop worrying, and the donors' loved ones, who will never stop grieving. First novelist Lovely throws into the mix a couple of over-the-top elements, including the truck driver, a disturbed young man whose intrusion into the lives of the two families adds a tension that goes a bit too far as the novel draws to its powerful close. Still, Lovely's sensitive handling of families going from catastrophe to something that looks like normal bodes well for a long, rich career. Strongly recommended.

Kirkus Reviews

Iowa City resident Lovely's first novel is an overwrought, often excruciating exploration of the ironies unleashed by a young woman's decision to donate her organs. Isabel, a botanist, is riding her bike up a hill on a blustery Iowa spring day. At the crest, a gust forces her into the wrong lane, just in time to collide head-on with a pickup truck driven by Jasper, an aspiring blues guitarist and all around ne'er-do-well. As Isabel lies brain-dead in the hospital, her organs are harvested as her mother, Bernice, and husband, Alex, keep horrified vigil. In Chicago, Janet, whose myopathic heart is failing, is the designated recipient of Isabel's heart. A year after Isabel's death, Alex's grief is still raw, but he's comforted by his kinship with Bernice. He's disturbed when Janet's thank-you notes become outright demands for friendship. Bernice, whose closeness to Alex is threatened by a new girlfriend, welcomes chatty e-mails from Janet's mother Lotta. Post-transplant, Janet returns to teaching troubled youth, while coping with her two boisterous children. Her workaholic lawyer husband David, who lacks caregiving genes, withdraws. Jasper, whose characterization is the most problematic in the novel, morphs from feckless screw-up-he's underemployed and underappreciated at Best Buy-to a stalker who's bent on forcing Alex, Bernice and Janet to acknowledge his "role" in the heart donation. Although acquitted at trial, Jasper, sole surviving witness to the accident, withheld one piece of crucial incriminating evidence-he was driving while dialing. In the sections devoted to Jasper, the writer's contempt for him is palpable. Because he killed Isabel he's already the obvious villain-the moredaunting challenge, ducked here, was to make him an identifiably flawed human. In the absence of a plot, the action is driven largely by Alex's ruminations, many voiced in long stretches of eloquent but repetitive speechifying. Despite evocative prose throughout, this morality tale never achieves dramatic lift-off.

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