The Heart Keeper
Critically acclaimed author Alex Dahl explores how love can turn darkly sinister when a desperate mother looks to reconnect with her lost daughter in this riveting Norwegian set psychological suspense novel.
Two mothers. Two daughters. One heart.
When Alison's beloved daughter Amalie drowns, her world turns impenetrably dark. Alison tries to hold it together throughout the bleak Fall, but in the darkest days of the Norwegian Winter she completely falls apart.
In another family, Amalie's passing is a new beginning. After years of severe health problems, young Kaia receives a new heart on the morning after Amalie drowns. Her mother Iselin has struggled to raise Kaia on her own and now things are finally looking up. She's even made an affluent new friend who's taken a special interest in her and her daughter.
Alison knows she shouldn't interfere, but really, she's just trying to help Iselin and Kaia. She can give them the life they never had, and by staying close to them, she can still be with her daughter. Kaia is just like her, and surely, something of Amalie must live on in her. As her grief transforms into a terrifying obsession, Alison won't let anything stop her from getting back what she has lost.
Two mothers. Two daughters. One heart.
When Alison's beloved daughter Amalie drowns, her world turns impenetrably dark. Alison tries to hold it together throughout the bleak Fall, but in the darkest days of the Norwegian Winter she completely falls apart.
In another family, Amalie's passing is a new beginning. After years of severe health problems, young Kaia receives a new heart on the morning after Amalie drowns. Her mother Iselin has struggled to raise Kaia on her own and now things are finally looking up. She's even made an affluent new friend who's taken a special interest in her and her daughter.
Alison knows she shouldn't interfere, but really, she's just trying to help Iselin and Kaia. She can give them the life they never had, and by staying close to them, she can still be with her daughter. Kaia is just like her, and surely, something of Amalie must live on in her. As her grief transforms into a terrifying obsession, Alison won't let anything stop her from getting back what she has lost.
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Community Reviews
Alison is grieving the loss of her only child, Amalie, who drowned a few months ago at the age of five. She is riddled with guilt about Amalie's tragic passing, and her marriage to Sindre is falling apart. Alison and Sindre donated Amalie's organs and, as the story progresses, Alison learns the identity of the little girl who received Amalie's heart, with whom Alison becomes increasingly obsessed and detached from reality.
Author Alex Dahl unsparingly and bravely explores the anguish Alison experiences after the loss of Amalie, the precious girl she refers to as "little bear." Alison is consumed with grief. Via her first-person narrative, Alison describes the visceral physical and psychological pain she is experiencing, as well as her futile attempts to numb that pain through medications, alcohol, and therapy. Even though she recognizes that none of those measures will provide any relief from the reality that her daughter is gone forever, Alison succumbs to self-destructive behavior.
Sindre is mourning Amalie, along with Alison. A former soldier, his grief manifests in very different ways. He continues working, but is emotionally distant and removed. It becomes clear that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his military experiences and, like Alison, is unraveling psychologically. At his breaking point, Alison tries to care for him. But neither of them are so emotionally fragile that neither is capable of supporting and helping the other.
Sindre's teenage son from a prior marriage, Oliver, spends half of his time with his father and the other half with his mother. He loved his little half-sister and is also grieving. He tries to be strong, but he is also a victim of circumstances. Sindre and Alison are aware of their own inability to provide Oliver the strength and support he needs.
In alternating chapters, Dahl also conveys Iselin's story. Through an empathetic first-person narrative, Dahl portrays strain that Kaia's illness has placed on Iselin, especially as a single mother lacking an effective support system. Estranged from their own parents, she is close to her younger sister, a successful disk jockey living in Paris. Iselin has been unable to work at all because of the demands of caring for Kaia, relegated to surviving on the meager income she receives from the Norwegian government. Iselin has prepared herself to say good-bye to Kaia many times, and the joy of learning that her daughter now has a chance to lead a long, healthy life is tempered by the knowledge that her joy was only made possible by another family's tragedy.
The story's tension escalates as Oliver announces that his class learned about transplants and the phenomenon known as cellular memory. Since every cell in the human body holds an individual's complete genetic material, is it possible that transplanted organ's hold the donor's memories? Or that the donor's personal characteristics manifest in the recipient? Alison, a journalist, researches the topic, and becomes obsessed with finding the donor who received Amalie's heart. Circumstances conspire to reveal Kaia's identity to Oliver, who shares the information with Alison. From there, her obsession with finding out whether any aspect of her daughter lives on in Kaia grows stronger, and Alison engages in increasingly deranged, reckless behavior that includes befriending Iselin and Kaia. Dahl increases the story's pace incrementally as Alison learns that since the transplant Kaia has, in fact, engaged in some behaviors that are eerily like things Amalie did. As Alison becomes increasingly unhinged, it is apparent that the result can be nothing short of catastrophic -- and her actions lead to a frightening climax.
Dahl believably takes readers to the psychologically dark places her characters inhabit, making The Heart Keeper engrossing, raw and sometimes difficult reading. It is a beautifully crafted, believable exploration of the power of loss, and the myriad ways in which grief over the loss of a child can psychologically cripple parents and destroy marriages, especially if one parent feels responsible for the child's death. It is also a compassionate look at the toll being the caregiver for an ill child can take on a parent, and how the strain is enhanced if that parent is doing so on his or her own. Those two stories are compellingly interwoven into a fast-paced thriller that supplies a satisfying, rational conclusion.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
Author Alex Dahl unsparingly and bravely explores the anguish Alison experiences after the loss of Amalie, the precious girl she refers to as "little bear." Alison is consumed with grief. Via her first-person narrative, Alison describes the visceral physical and psychological pain she is experiencing, as well as her futile attempts to numb that pain through medications, alcohol, and therapy. Even though she recognizes that none of those measures will provide any relief from the reality that her daughter is gone forever, Alison succumbs to self-destructive behavior.
Sindre is mourning Amalie, along with Alison. A former soldier, his grief manifests in very different ways. He continues working, but is emotionally distant and removed. It becomes clear that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his military experiences and, like Alison, is unraveling psychologically. At his breaking point, Alison tries to care for him. But neither of them are so emotionally fragile that neither is capable of supporting and helping the other.
Sindre's teenage son from a prior marriage, Oliver, spends half of his time with his father and the other half with his mother. He loved his little half-sister and is also grieving. He tries to be strong, but he is also a victim of circumstances. Sindre and Alison are aware of their own inability to provide Oliver the strength and support he needs.
In alternating chapters, Dahl also conveys Iselin's story. Through an empathetic first-person narrative, Dahl portrays strain that Kaia's illness has placed on Iselin, especially as a single mother lacking an effective support system. Estranged from their own parents, she is close to her younger sister, a successful disk jockey living in Paris. Iselin has been unable to work at all because of the demands of caring for Kaia, relegated to surviving on the meager income she receives from the Norwegian government. Iselin has prepared herself to say good-bye to Kaia many times, and the joy of learning that her daughter now has a chance to lead a long, healthy life is tempered by the knowledge that her joy was only made possible by another family's tragedy.
The story's tension escalates as Oliver announces that his class learned about transplants and the phenomenon known as cellular memory. Since every cell in the human body holds an individual's complete genetic material, is it possible that transplanted organ's hold the donor's memories? Or that the donor's personal characteristics manifest in the recipient? Alison, a journalist, researches the topic, and becomes obsessed with finding the donor who received Amalie's heart. Circumstances conspire to reveal Kaia's identity to Oliver, who shares the information with Alison. From there, her obsession with finding out whether any aspect of her daughter lives on in Kaia grows stronger, and Alison engages in increasingly deranged, reckless behavior that includes befriending Iselin and Kaia. Dahl increases the story's pace incrementally as Alison learns that since the transplant Kaia has, in fact, engaged in some behaviors that are eerily like things Amalie did. As Alison becomes increasingly unhinged, it is apparent that the result can be nothing short of catastrophic -- and her actions lead to a frightening climax.
Dahl believably takes readers to the psychologically dark places her characters inhabit, making The Heart Keeper engrossing, raw and sometimes difficult reading. It is a beautifully crafted, believable exploration of the power of loss, and the myriad ways in which grief over the loss of a child can psychologically cripple parents and destroy marriages, especially if one parent feels responsible for the child's death. It is also a compassionate look at the toll being the caregiver for an ill child can take on a parent, and how the strain is enhanced if that parent is doing so on his or her own. Those two stories are compellingly interwoven into a fast-paced thriller that supplies a satisfying, rational conclusion.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
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