Open Heart

A Poignant and Gripping Historical Novel About the Enduring Power of Love

De: Gregory Williams

Narrado por: Derek Neumann

Life is fleeting. Love is a gift.

In this coming-of-age novel set in the 1970s, Gene Hull is whitewashing the trunks of Arizona citrus trees when he spots a beautiful girl and falls instantly in love. The girl is vulnerable and shy. Though Gene breaks through her reserve, a date at a wave park turns into a near disaster, and Gene must call on the one person he can always rely on - his father, who is a doctor.

Although the girl survives and Gene wins her over, what will happen when they leave for college? Is she truly “the one”, or will distance drive them apart?

When a freak accident blows a hole in Gene’s freshman year, his grades tank, and he bobbles the ball with the love of his life. She’s gone forever. Not only that, he’ll never get into med school on grades alone.

Hoping to improve his chances of admission, he spends the summer trailing a famous heart surgeon. But can Gene, determined to live up to his father’s legacy, turn his summer in the “Heart Room” - an operating theater of chilling cold, bone saws, and macabre humor - into an experience that would make his father proud? Will he ever love again?

If you like novels where family life is complicated, and parents’ expectations trickle down into their children’s lives, then you’ll love Gregory D. Williams’ roman à clef about life, love, and finding one’s own true path.

Buy Open Heart today for an inside look at a team of surgeons healing broken hearts and a young man trying desperately to heal his own.

©2021 Gregory D. Williams (P)2021 Marylee MacDonald

A compelling mix of realistic medical events and relatable human relationships

Full disclosure: I am the author’s son.

Additional disclosure: a love story is just about the last genre I’d go browsing through for my next read, but I’m incredibly grateful that life’s circumstances put this book in front of me.

My dad spent years crafting this book over the past decade, and while certain people in his writing circle may have been privy to previews of this labor of love prior to release, my siblings and I were not amongst them. His passing in 2020 and the subsequent publishing of this, his first and only full length novel, represented an opportunity for me to finally read his work and honor his efforts. What I came away with was an immense amount of pride, a greater appreciation of his medical career, a newfound perspective of our relationship, and learnings for my life that somehow my father managed to pass on to me even after his passing.

Going through the audiobook is now my second time reading this, a hardcover reading having been the first. I admit that I am biased when it comes to evaluating this book, but I can say with honesty that it left me quite surprised by how compelling and real the human interactions in the book felt. It never leaned fully into a hero or heroine archetype that would have felt pandering, fake, or contrived, and the complex relationships left me self-reflecting quite often on what I would have done, or whether I was as good/bad as the characters and their decisions from chapter to chapter. The fact that all of the great character work and relationship building occurs amongst an equally compelling and detailed medical backdrop only adds to my adoration of what this book managed to achieve.

To say much more would either spoil parts of the book or add undue length to a son’s review of his father’s work, leaving people to question why a ten page gushing review from a family member was necessary. I loved the book the first time I read it. I loved the book the second time I read it. And I love my dad for leaving this wonderful and beautiful creative work behind for myself and all those who would read it.