In this poignant and startlingly original book, Brian Doyle examines the heart as a physical organ how it is supposed to work, how surgeons try to fix it when it doesn t and as a metaphor: the seat of the soul, the power house of the body, the essence of spirituality. In a series of profoundly moving ruminations, Doyle considers the scientific, emotional, literary, philosophical, and spiritual understandings of the heart from cardiology to courage, from love letters and pop songs to Jesus. Weaving these strands together is the torment of Doyle s own infant son s heart surgery and the...