Review: Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

In Heart and Soul, Maeve Binchy once again assembles a cast of loveable characters in her homeland - Ireland. This time the characters are all connected to Dr. Clara Casey who accepts the role of establishing a cardiac clinic in Dublin despite the fact that it means working for the miserly Frank who doesn't care about the outcomes of the patients so much as the bottom line in the accounting books. He has met his match - Clara is a force to be reckoned with both at home with her smart-mouthed teenagers and at the clinic as she tries to establish a state of the art facility focused on patient care.

Dr. Casey surrounds herself with a staff that all have their heart and concern for patients in common. There is young Dr. Declan Carroll who has recently qualified and is doing a rotation through the clinic; the Polish emigre Ania who works hard in her new country at many jobs including an assistant to Dr. Casey and the lovely Fiona Ryan - a nurse with charm to spare. Each staff member in the clinic has their own back story that gets explored as the novel progresses. In much the same way, the patients of the clinic are also a varied crew of characters. They each have their own story and many of those stories start to intersect with those of other patients or cast members. The result is the depiction of a real community where you feel you would know everyone as you passed them in the street.  

My Thoughts
 As I have said before, I am a big fan of Maeve Binchy - her novels bring me comfort and are always enjoyable reads. She charms me with her stories of Irish towns and their residents. Heart and Soul is no different and it is extra special in that it brings characters from earlier novels in for cameo appearances which brings back fond memories of those books. Clara Casey is a strong female character - she is an accomplished physician who assumes the challenging role of building the Heart Clinic while she is mother to two headstrong teenagers at home. The author, however, humanizes her by giving her a cheating ex-husband which adds interest to the story and shows the softer side to Clara. I read this book before the death of Maeve Binchy and had been looking forward to reading many more books by the author. While I am saddened to hear of the author's death, I am cheered to learn that a final book which the author finished prior to her death will be published. After that, I guess my only choice is to re-read all her novels!