Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2018
432 pages
Genre: Science, Health and the Environment
Publication Information
An eye-opening and heroic story of pioneering heart surgeons, structured around eleven operations.
For thousands of years the human heart remained the deepest of mysteries; both home to the soul and an organ too complex to touch, let alone operate on.
Then, in the late nineteenth century, medics began going where no one had dared go before. The following decades saw the mysteries of the heart exposed, thanks to pioneering surgeons, brave patients and even sacrificial dogs.
In eleven landmark operations, Thomas Morris tells us stories of triumph, reckless bravery, swaggering arrogance, jealousy and rivalry, and incredible ingenuity: the trail-blazing 'blue baby' procedure that transformed wheezing infants into pink, healthy children; the first human heart transplant, which made headline news around the globe. And yet the heart still feels sacred: just before the operation to fit one of the first artificial hearts, the patient's wife asked the surgeon if he would still be able to love her.
The Matter of the Heart gives us a view over the surgeon's shoulder, showing us the heart's inner workings and failings. It describes both a human story and a history of risk-taking that has ultimately saved millions of lives.
"Starred Review. Morris's expert guided tour of cardiac surgery and its quirky, brilliant innovators covers a dazzling and dizzying array of procedures and hints at tantalizing prospects for future surprises." - Publishers Weekly
"Just the thing for aspiring heart surgeons, who may one day soon be 3-D printing new hearts that will be 'dispatched in drones to wherever they are needed.'" - Kirkus
"Thrilling ... Significant and often immersive… The "dizzying" story of heart surgery is every bit as important as that of the nuclear, computer or rocket ages. And now it has been given the history it deserves." - The Sunday Times (UK)
"The research that has gone into this book is simply staggering, and Morris has achieved much more than a history of heart operations… It is a study of human beings driven by Olympian ambition and bottomless curiosity. It is, in the end, a book about wonder. And a wonderful book." - The Daily Telegraph (UK)
"Gripping... The Matter of the Heart details the breathtaking advances that have been made in the past 100 years." - The Guardian (UK)
"Thomas Morris has written not a history of medical ideas about the heart, but a history of heart surgery...Morris has made something unique: a history less of people than of procedures, but lively, enthusiastic and brimming with detail ... anything but boring." - The New Statesman (UK)
"Fascinating and compelling... There are also remarkable tales of survival against the odds, perseverance, ingenuity and awe-inspiring feats...Morris deftly constructs an engaging narrative." - Literary Review (UK)
"Standing outside this precious and pressured world, Morris provides an even-handed and honest survey of the pioneers and their breakthroughs…intelligent." - The Times (UK)
"Magnificent… Thomas Morris provides us with a thoughtful, engaging and rigorous account of how cardiac surgeons through history have sought to undo the ravages wrought on the heart… The results are a triumph of both the human imagination, emotional resilience and supreme self-confidence… It is peppered with vibrant anecdotes as well as biographical accounts of the individuals who made these important contributions." - Spectator (UK)
"[As] Thomas Morris reveals in this stirring chronicle, even touching a beating heart was long viewed as impossible… Told through 11 pivotal operations, it's a tale of ingenuity... It's rich, too, in alarming details--not least, the injections of strychnine and whisky that featured in early surgery." - Nature
"Thomas Morris does for the history of cardiac surgery what The Right Stuff and Hidden Figures did for the space race...The book is - appropriately - pulse-thumpingly gripping and will be enjoyed by anyone who, in any sense of the phrase, has a heart." - Mark Lawson
"Tremendous. An exhilarating sweep through ancient history and contemporary practice in surgery of the heart. It's rich in extraordinary detail and stories that will amaze you. A wonderful book." - Melvyn Bragg
"[Thomas Morris] succeeds where many such experts have failed in distilling the complexity of this organ into a highly readable and fascinating narrative...[he] captur[es] the majesty and pace of more than 80 years of scientific innovation...the degree to which this book has been researched is breathtaking." - David Warriner, Independent Nurse
This information about The Matter of the Heart was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Thomas Morris worked for many years as a successful radio producer, with a particular interest in scientific and medical topics. He is now a freelance journalist working for the Times and Financial Times.
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