Successful Christian author and speaker Savannah Trover becomes very ill. She needs a heart transplant. Facing death, she realizes her own faith has been shallow and she renews her commitment to and relationship with Jesus.
But then comes the heart transplant and the awful realization that her faith in God is entirely gone. In its place is an intense hatred for God.
Savannah's husband and daughter struggle through the personality change. Savannah no longer has the desire to speak at conferences – she has nothing to say. The ministry that has supported the family falls apart. Then Savannah learns her husband has been taking money from the ministry and hiding it. The ministry is gone. The money is gone.
Savannah turns to an old friend running a support home for hurting Christians. Will Savannah be able to return to faith in God? Will she be able to restore the relationships in her family?
I was at first skeptical of Strobel's plot. However, a Google® search revealed some work reported on the San Francisco Medical Society web site. The article is about investigating the theories of emotions or memories being stored in the tissues of the body.1 Takeuchi there notes “the numerous reports of organ transplant recipients who later experienced changed in personality traits, tastes for food...”2 So it may be that memories are not stored in the brain alone. The world of medicine in general has not embraced the concept of cellular memory but at least one doctor is practicing as if it is true.
Strobel has progressed a great deal in her writing skills since her debut novel. She has crafted a pretty good story about a controversial topic. I'm glad I read the book and feel like I have learned something in the process.
Author website: www.alisonstrobel.com
Zondervan, 296 pages.
2Ibid.
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