Strings: The Miracle of Life

Strings is an extraordinary odyssey told with sensitive passion by John Robbins, former University professor, peace activist, Buddhist monk and current marathon runner. The book, a medical narrative full of human drama and rare suspense is packed with keen insights and subtle, but profound teachings on the human condition. Robbins uses his training as a professional historian to piece together a fantastic thirty-six hours in which a liver is found a thousand miles away, a plane chartered and a medical team assembled to attempt a-never-before-successful liver transplant on a Hepatitis B patient. He describes in a suspense-packed narrative an 18 hour operation and a six month hospitalization in which he learned how to live again.

But this book is much more than an account of a liver transplant. It's a page turning medical thriller in the tradition of a Michael Crichton novel with the narrative and teaching power of Normal Cousins. It's an unusually fast paced, but richly detailed account. Despite knowing that Robbins survived the ordeal, the reader inevitably becomes caught up in the suspense of the transplant process. Drawing upon his years spent as a Buddhist monk, Robbins has created a spiritual teaching classic for the nineties in the sixties tradition of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.