The Universal Donor (Norton Paperback Fiction) - Softcover

Nova, Craig

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393318451 ISBN 13: 9780393318456

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998

Synopsis

"In the hands of this accomplished novelist, a love story becomes a thriller as a Los Angeles doctor tries to save a woman by tracking down the criminal psychopath who shares her rare blood type."―New York Times Book Review

Bitten by one of the snakes she is studying, Virginia Lee, an accomplished herpetologist, drives herself to the hospital, carrying a decaying antidote and using her pantyhose as a tourniquet to slow the poison's path in her bloodstream. Through the hideous traffic of L.A., she must reach her lover Terry McKechnie, who works as an emergency-room physician. Her hope and faith is in him, even as it has been withdrawn from her husband, Terry's college friend. After her arrival, Virginia desperately needs transfusions of her rare blood type-and only an explosive criminal-at-large with whom Terry has already clashed can save her life. In this "absolutely bewitching" (Jonathan Harr) novel, Craig Nova brings us into the moral morass of contemporary America, gripping us with the beauty of his exacting prose and the suspense of his riveting emotional drama. "I wouldn't delay reading a novel of Nova's, not even to complete one of my own."―John Irving "Craig Nova is a fine writer, one of our best, and if you haven't read him, the loss is yours."―Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World (1997 Critic's Choice) "As skilled a piece of storytelling as Mr. Nova has yet pulled off."―Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times

About this title

Review

In his ninth novel, The Universal Donor, Craig Nova mixes elements of the thriller into a thoughtful story of ethics, both professional and personal. His protagonist is Dr. Terry McKechnie, the son and grandson of physicians who finds himself questioning his vocation after working the graveyard shift at a Los Angeles hospital emergency room. Faced with gunshot wounds, stabbings, drug overdoses, and the myriad other hopeless conditions that flood the ER night after night, he soon begins to wonder if it's possible to stem the tide of death in a populace bristling with weaponry. Just as McKechnie begins to grow numb to humanity, he meets Virginia Lee, a scientist engaged to his best friend. When the two fall in love, The Universal Donor begins an exploration of moral choices that heats up considerably when Virginia is injured in a freak accident and requires a blood transfusion--no simple matter, since she has an extremely rare blood type.

Soon McKechnie is embroiled in a dark hunt for a potential donor for his beloved Virginia, a search that takes him into an urban jungle where the rules he grew up with no longer apply. How far is he willing to go to get what he needs? This is the question Nova's novel asks--and answers. Craig Nova is one of the most underrated writers in America; let's hope that The Universal Donor will make more readers aware of his talent.

About the Author

Craig Nova's previous novels include Tornado Alley, Trombone, and The Book of Dreams. He lives in Vermont.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0393318451
• ISBN 13: 9780393318456
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 270