The Heart Broke In: A Novel
Author | Meek, James |
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Year | 2012 |
First published | 2012 |
Publisher | New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Number of pages | 416 |
Edition | First US Hardcover |
ISBN | 9780374168711 |
Keywords | medicine (biomedical research), literary or mainstream, female scientist, Africa, genetics |
Abstract
Ritchie Shepherd, an aging pop star and a producer of a reality show for teen talent, is starting to trip over his own lies. Maybe filming a documentary about his father, Captain Shepherd, a British soldier executed by Northern Irish guerrillas, will redeem him.
His sister, Bec, is getting closer and closer to a vaccine for malaria. When she's not in Tanzania harvesting field samples, she's peering through a microscope at her own blood to chart the risky treatment she's testing on herself. She's as addicted to honesty as Ritchie is to trickery.
Val Oatman is the editor of a powerful tabloid newspaper. The self-appointed conscience of the nation, scourge of hypocrites and cheats, he believes he will marry beautiful Bec.
Alex Comrie, a gene therapist (and formerly the drummer in Ritchie's band), is battling his mortally ill uncle, a brilliant and domineering scientist, over whether Alex might actually have discovered a cure for aging. Alex, too, believes he will marry Bec.
Colum O'Donabháin has just been
released from prison, having served a twenty-five-year sentence for
putting a gun to Captain Shepherd's head when he refused to give up an
informer. He now writes poetry. (Amazon)