THE TRANSPLANT MEN. Jane Taylor

Jacana, 2009. Softcover, 141 pages. Very good condition. Under 1kg.

An investigation within an investigation, this richly imagined tale follows an organ recipient, Guy Hawthorne, and the person who performed his heart transplant. The mystery opens with an unexplained violent death and a video tape left with the body, leading to a story of modern medicine and the psychological twists that lie at the heart of celebrity and obsession. Infused with the halfway modern spirit of South Africa in the 1960s, this poetic and haunting thriller captures the tensions of the times, weaving together fiction and fact in a gripping storyline.

Jane Taylor's  richly imagined new work is of two men; Hawthorne, an organ recipient, and Barnard, the first person to perform a heart transplant. The novel opens with a mystery: an unexplained violent death and a video tape left with the body.

Your achievement is all the greater for being accomplished from Cape Town, I said in response to his complaint that the world was catching up. It will signal that our country is thriving. In those days I did not align myself with the nay-sayers who were making so much fuss in the aftermath of the Terrorism Act.

You are our sputnik. I spoke in a florid set of comparisons, as I often do when seized by an enthusiasm. I wasnt exaggerating. Our Yuri Gagarin.

These words are spoken to Christiaan Barnard by Guy Hawthorne, the narrator of this gripping piece of storytelling, an investigation within an investigation.

Infused with the halfway modern spirit of South Africa in the 1960s, this poetic and haunting thriller captures the tensions of the times, the story of medicine and psychological twists that lie at the heart of celebrity and obsession.