In his latest novel PIECES Chris Lynch explores what happens when a teen decides to meet his brother’s organ recipients

Pieces

 

 

Pieces (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) by Chris Lynch, 16.99

Eric’s only sibling and only friend, Duane, suffers an irreversible brain injury in a swimming accident and Eric becomes the final voice in a decision to harvest his brother’s organs. His brother was his after all and Eric feels more than a bit of ownership over Duane’s life and legacy. Each day afterward, Eric’s grief becomes a larger rock of memory even as his pain becomes less and his brother seems to fade. It is the fading that makes Eric’s struggle to live in a world without Duane an isolated and numb space. There are bits of Duane philosophy that spark in Eric’s mind. He recalls Duane saying, “Self-awareness is a great thing. Unless you’re trying to sleep.” Duane also said, “It’s a long fall off a high horse. Remember that, Brother.”

But there are also pieces of Duane out there. There are real people who wake each day and they have more. They have something of Eric’s brother implanted inside. They can laugh and live and feel because of Duane. A year after Duane’s death, Eric considers, “If it is bone-aching sadness, I want it. If it is joy and satisfaction and pride, that would be fine too.

But there is a nothingness that is filling the Duane space in me, spreading like a gradual, internal bleeding. That can’t go on.”

He chooses to meet the recipients of his brother’s organs. He can’t meet them all. Organ recipients can request anonymity. A meeting has to be mutual. But Eric is able to meet Phil, a gentle teen-aged guy who has Duane’s inner-ear bones. Eric finds himself often leaning into Phil to whisper ironic remarks and sentiments into that ear. Eric also meets Barry, an obnoxious recipient of Duane’s liver who has taken to drinking copious amounts of liquor. Eric, who recalls his brother’s minimal drinking habits, can’t help poking Barry and telling him that he’s got something of Eric’s that he’d better take care of. There is Melissa, an attractive single mom who has Duane’s kidney.

Where Eric expected to meet strangers, he discovers that relationships open emotional connection—both the positive and negative. In fostering these new relationships, Eric learns that he can’t control the behavior of others. He can’t make Barry stop drinking or less obnoxious. Although he can help Melissa with her little boy and suggest she deserves more than the misogynistic boyfriend, he can’t make her dump him until she’s ready. And Eric discovers a sensitive, gentle friend-who-could-be a little brother in Phil. There is complexity in each character’s life and make-up that reaches out to Eric in ways that connect him to his own brother’s memory even as it helps him move on. These new friends, who feel like newfound family, make Eric’s journey to put the pieces of his own life back together incredibly poignant and distinctly real.

With this novel, Chris Lynch opens readers up to considering death and grief. He also paves the way to discussions of organ donation and the ethical implications of donor families meeting recipients and the expectations that might accompany such meetings. Where a novel about this topic could have been bogged down with Hallmark moments, this award-winning novelist succeeds in this story because he has once again created human characters who demonstrate irreverence even when they’re being most sincere. As a Kirkus starred review points out, “Each character springs fully formed off the page, and Lynch’s irreverent, inventive dialogue crackles, turning what could have easily been a maudlin soap opera into a sharply observed story of real human connection.”

Lynch’s character-driven novels depicting teens caught in the undertow of life’s very real issues, resonate with readers and this novel is no exception. Lynch is the Printz Honor Award-winning author of several highly acclaimed young adult novels, including Pieces, Kill Switch, Angry Young Man, and Inexcusable, which was a National Book Award finalist and the recipient of six starred reviews. He is also the author of the Printz Honor Book Freewill, Gold Dust, Iceman, Gypsy Davy, and Shadow Boxer—all ALA Best Books for Young Adults—as well as Extreme Elvin, Whitechurch, and All the Old Haunts. He holds an MA from the writing program at Emerson College. He teaches in the Creative Writing MFA program at Lesley University. He lives in Boston and in Scotland.

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