SONALI DEV
USA Today Bestselling Author
A CHANGE OF HEART
Dr. Nikhil ‘Nic’ Joshi had it all—marriage, career, purpose. Until, while working for Doctors Without Borders in a Mumbai slum, his wife, Jen, discovered a black market organ transplant ring. Before she could expose the truth, Jen was killed.
Two years after the tragedy, Nic is a cruise ship doctor who spends his days treating seasickness and sunburn and his nights in a boozy haze. On one of those blurry evenings on deck, Nic meets a woman who makes a startling claim: she received Jen’s heart in a transplant and has a message for him. Nic wants to discount Jess Koirala’s story as absurd, but there’s something about her reckless desperation that resonates despite his doubts.
Jess has spent years working her way out of a nightmarish life in Calcutta and into a respectable Bollywood dance troupe. Now she faces losing the one thing that matters—her young son, Joy. She needs to uncover the secrets Jen risked everything for; but the unforeseen bond that results between her and Nic is both a lifeline and a perilous complication.
Delving beyond the surface of modern Indian-American life, acclaimed author Sonali Dev’s page-turning novel is both riveting and emotionally rewarding—an extraordinary story of human connection, bravery, and hope.
“Dev deftly navigates the complex themes of bereavement, motherhood, and how the culture of Indiaexists in America. All the while, she swathes tough, fully realized characters in delicate prose and tackles tragedy with both grittiness and sensitivity. With richly rendered characters, heavy topics, and soulful writing, this is stunning all around.” – Booklist, STARRED Review
“Just as one heart leads to another—literally and metaphorically—in Dev’s seductive and complex story of love lost and then found, one layer of mystery leads to the next… Dev moves so expertly through the subtle layers of the tender love story that Nic and Jess—and even Jen—will hold a permanent place in readers’ hearts.” – Publisher’s Weekly, STARRED Review
“Dev masterfully probes Jess’ and Nikhil’s rawest emotions through her multilayered Rubik’s cube of a plot. Every time the reader thinks she has figured out the end of the novel, the story’s quick-paced narrative, which races back and forth from the U.S. to India, takes another hairpin turn, leaving the reader breathless. This is riveting, heart-pounding drama. A novelist at the height of her powers.” – Kirkus, STARRED Review
“A combination of steamy romance and crime thriller with an issue-driven plot…the triumph of love and hope over tragedy and despair provides an uplifting counterpoint to the dark heart of this work.” – Library Journal
“It has only taken a few books for Dev to prove that she is an author on the fast track. Her ability to deliver richly layered and compelling stories filled with stunning emotional resonance is second to none. This newest novel explores the side effects of terrible grief as well as the hope that comes from building a new future. Utterly compelling and filled with wrenching emotion, this is one book readers will not soon forget!”– RT Book Reviews, 4.5 Stars TOP PICK
“emotional, intricate, and will squeeze your heart with painstaking precision. A Change of Heart is part thriller, part romance and part magical possibility, with a deeply satisfying and several-tissues-required happy ending.” – NPR