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 19th century, medics began going where no one had dared go before. Reflecting on 11 landmark operations, Thomas Morris tells stories of triumph, rivalry, and incredible ingenuity: the trail-blazing "blue baby" procedure that transformed wheezing infants into pink, healthy children, and the first human heart transplant, which made headline news around the globe. Here too is the story of how—just before the operation to fit one of the first artificial hearts—the patient's wife asked the surgeon if her husband would still love her.