The Gift of Life

In 1960s Apartheid South Africa, Black Lives did not matter. Black people were denied all basic freedoms including the right to advanced education. Most people know of South African surgeon, Christiaan Barnard, who carried out the very first successful heart transplant in the world. But very few people know the name of Hamilton Naki. Naki, an uneducated gardener at Barnard's university, doubled up as his laboratory assistant and turned out to have a remarkable natural aptitude for surgery. Even fewer people know that Naki, not Barnard, carried out most of the numerous animal transplant experiments that came before the first human transplant and helped to develop its successful methodology. And sadly, a mere handful of people have heard of Denise Darville, whose tragic car crash made her our first heart donor. This unsentimental but moving novel documents the unlikely pairing of Barnard and Naki and their convergence with the short life of Denise - to change the future of heart surgery forever.