My heart is less than 1% of my body, it weighs hardly anything; it is only a tiny piece of me, yet it is the part everyone finds most interesting.Vivi Palmer knows what it’s like to live life carefully. Born with a heart defect, she was given a second chance after a transplant, but has never quite dared to make the most of it. Until she comes face-to-face with her donor’s mother, Grace, who wants … mother, Grace, who wants something in return for Vivi’s second-hand heart: her help to find all the other people who have tiny pieces of her son.
Reluctantly drawn into Grace’s mission, Vivi’s journalist training takes over as one by one she tracks down a small group of strangers. As their lives intertwine Vivi finds herself with a new kind of family, and by finding out more about all the pieces that make up the many parts of her, Vivi might just discover a whole new world waiting for her…
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This is a lovely story, beautifully and so thoughtfully written, it delves into the lives of transplant recipients and that of the donor family the start is heart-breaking but as you read you see what that tragedy made happen for other ill people.
We meet Vivi Palmer journalist living in London, she is still living and doing really well thanks to a heart transplant seven years before but when Vivi meets her donor’s mother Grace and Grace wants to meet all of the recipients who received organs from her son, she asks Vivi to help, Grace has been struggling for a while and is hoping that this will help, so Vivi takes on the task through the newspaper where she works.
Vivi tracks down some of the recipients, Tommy, Fiona, Stefano and Emerald and although she has a beautiful family of her own as she gets to know them it isn’t long before she sees these people as family as well her transplant twins and together a bond forms with Grace.
My heart went out to Grace her story is heart breaking but she can see what she and her son have done for all of these people and she finds a new family and some happiness along the way, there are some very teary moments throughout this story but there is also lots of reasons to smile.
This is a fabulously researched story one that was filled with emotion and feelings as we get to know Vivi, Grace and the other characters for there are a few that add so much to the story, I do recommend this one very much it certainly opens up a lot about organ donation and the people who benefit, a very poignant and touching story.
My thanks to Hachette for my copy to read and review.
Tiny Pieces Of Us by Nicky Pellegrino is a beautiful contemporary novel that will lodge in your heart and soul.
The central theme of the novel is organ donation. This is a difficult theme, sensitively portrayed.
The reader sees lives affected by those who received donated organs and the one who made the decision to gift the organs. In pain and loss the gift of life is given to perfect strangers.
Pain and grief are constant companions. “She is lost in grief.” Grief never goes away. We have to learn to live with our pain. Grief brings conflicting emotions. “I cry… I get angry because he was taken too soon and it isn’t fair.” We have to live with the continual ‘what if’ and ‘why?’ A life snuffed out in its prime. All that potential lost.
Living with someone with a life limiting condition affects all those around – family and friends. There is the constant fear that your loved one could be lost at any moment. “All the wealth he had worked for, all the success and status; seemed irrelevant as he faced losing a child.” We cannot keep death at bay no matter how much money we have. Priorities change as we realise that the riches of this world lie in people.
There are some beautiful friendships built within the novel. Love and care radiate from the pages.
Nicky Pellegrino writes beautifully and sensitively. The novel contains sadness and you will need tissues. However the overwhelming impression that I am left with is one of hope and of love.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.
ARC received via Hachette Australia for an honest review
Tiny Pieces of Us is a beautiful, heartwarming yet also heartbreaking tale of loss, love and finding “family” who aren’t blood.
I felt for Vivi as she is caught between a rock and a hard place when her boss *HISS* pushes her into a story she is not keen on. Let’s just say, Dan is a d1ck!
As she is taken on the journey to find the others her donor helped, I couldn’t help but want to see new relationships, new friendships forged and a new “family” grow together.
I can’t even imagine what all of them have gone through, and thank my lucky stars every day that I am relatively healthy.
Besides Vivi, my favourite character, who plays a very big part in the story, is Imogen, her sister. She could have so much resentment towards Vivi for ruining her childhood, yet there is none. She is all about loving her sister and the second chance she has been given, and getting her to live her best life.
You can’ help but fall in love with the others are they are brought into the Palmer family fold.
If your heart doesn’t ache a little whilst reading Tiny Pieces Of Us, you are a stronger person than me!
I am new to Nicky Pellegrino’s books (this is only my second read) but I am looking forward to what she brings us next.