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Content snapshot
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Violence
None
No violence; the central mystery involves identity and transplanted memory
Language
None
No strong language
Sexual Content
None
No sexual content; Isabel has a developing relationship
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
Some
The philosophical question of whether a heart transplant can carry memory; Isabel's inability to leave unexplained things alone
What this book is about
Isabel Dalhousie, Edinburgh philosopher and editor of the 'Review of Applied Ethics,' becomes involved with a man who received a heart transplant and has since been having visions of a face he doesn't recognize. The visions feel like memory — but not his own. Isabel investigates, following an instinct that there is something to be understood here. Alexander McCall Smith's second Isabel Dalhousie novel deepens the character established in 'The Sunday Philosophy Club' — a woman who cannot stop applying ethical attention to the world around her — and uses the transplant premise to examine questions of personal identity and continuity of self.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
second Isabel Dalhousie novel by Alexander McCall Smith
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