One windy April afternoon, a young woman bicycles alone
along a stretch of Iowa highway. She's pedaling hard,
hurrying to get home in time for dinner . . .
Alex
Voormann is a cerebral thirty-year-old archaeologist
married to the woman of his dreams--a beautiful, ambitious
botanist named Isabel. When Isabel, an organ donor, is
killed by a reckless driver, Alex reluctantly consents to
donate her heart.
Janet Corcoran is a young, headstrong
mother of two, an art teacher at an inner-city school in
Chicago. 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, a miracle. The day Isabel dies,
she gets her wish.
Flash forward a year. Janet sends
Alex a long letter. She'd like to learn something about
the woman who saved her life. Alex isn't interested in
talking to the recipient of his dead wife's heart. Since
Isabel's accident, he's become grief-stricken and
bewildered. His closest companion is his mother-in-law,
Bernice. They spend their nights reminiscing about Isabel
and hiding out from the world. Meanwhile, a local blues
musician named Jasper, the man responsible for Isabel's
death, attempts to atone for his misdeed. Jasper is
devastated by the knowledge that he destroyed a life but
attracted to the idea that he was partially responsible
for saving another life--Janet's. He sees her as his
ultimate salvation.
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.