Heart: A History

Sandeep Jauhar

A cardiologist by profession, Sandeep Jauhar interweaves stories about patients he has treated with the moving tale of his family’s own history of heart problems. He describes the work of pioneers such as Daniel Hale Williams, who performed the world’s first documented heart surgery in 1893, and Wilson Greatbatch, who accidentally invented the pacemaker. He also criticises our over-reliance on medical technology and argues that future progress will be determined more by how we choose to live rather than what device we invent.

Penguin Random House, 288 pages, Rs 599