Twenty years of heart failure taught the author how to live, but not how to die. Haunted by the experience of saying goodbye forever to his wife and two young daughters, he is suddenly given a second chance. On the hair-raising plane ride to a life-saving heart transplant, he records his thoughts in a "nightwire"-an email to friends and family. The nightwires became an immediate and intimate record of all that happened, from heart disease to a daunting recovery from surgery.

He expresses his thoughts and feelings throughout, together with a wry exposition of his medical ups and downs, his race to restore an ancient house in Italy, and the moving story of his relationship with the donor family. Honest, witty and philosophical, this book is much more than the diary of a heart recipient-it is a look at the meaning of life itself.