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Book Summary and Reviews of Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

Heart and Soul

by Maeve Binchy

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  • Published:
  • Feb 2009, 432 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

With the warmth, humor, and compassion we have come to expect from her, Maeve Binchy tells a story of family, friends, patients, and staff who are part of a heart clinic in a community caught between the old and the new Ireland.

Dr. Clara Casey has been offered the thankless job of establishing the underfunded clinic and agrees to take it on for a year. She has plenty on her plate already—two difficult adult daughters and the unwanted attentions of her ex-husband—but she assembles a wonderfully diverse staff devoted to helping their demanding, often difficult patients: the infectiously cheerful nurse; the indispensable office manager who can’t quite manage her own life; the Polish girl who’s come to Ireland to put a bad love affair firmly in her past and the booming Irish economy in her future; the young doctor who has a special touch with his patients; the physical therapist who undertakes a very different kind of therapy involving a local priest and a stalker.

Before long they manage to establish the clinic as an essential part of the community and Clara must decide whether or not to leave a place where lives are saved, courage is rewarded, and humor and optimism triumph over greed and self-pity.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"In spite of a few dull moments, the collective, charming effect of these story lines suggests that individuals are more connected than they might think." - Publishers Weekly.

"Binchy fills the book with people finding true love, discovering their niche in life, and taking full advantage of second chances. Binchy's numerous fans will seek this out." - Library Journal.

This information about Heart and Soul was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Maeve Binchy Author Biography

maevebinchy.com

Maeve Binchy was born in a small village outside Dublin. She spent her childhood in Dalkey, an experience she draws on today when creating the rural villages usually at the heart of her novels. After receiving her B.A. from University College in Dublin, she began working as a teacher. The experiences she had while teaching at a Jewish school and on vacation in Israel compelled her to find work on a kibbutz. While abroad in Israel, she wrote weekly letters to her father describing life in a country constantly on the brink of war. When Binchy's father sent one of her letters to The Irish Times where it was published and earned her £18, Binchy, who had been making £16 working at the school, thought that she had truly "arrived."
...

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