If America could send a man to the moon, shouldn't the best surgeons in the world be able to build an artificial heart? Charting a 50 year obsession, Mimi Swartz tells the story of O.H. "Bud" Frazier, who followed this dream to a hardware store in Brisbane, Australia; a seedy bar on the wrong side of Houston; and a field beside the Nile irrigated by an Archimedes screw. Rich in supporting players, Swartz's book also raises some of the hardest questions of the human condition. What are the tradeoffs of medical progress? Must science do harm to do good? And what is the cost, in suffering and resources, of offering patients a few more months, or years of life?
"Smart, compelling, and completely engaging.... Swartz drives the narrative with great style and deep reporting; it's a book anyone with a heart will love."—Susan Orlean