New York Times best-selling author Mitchell Fink, who for years was renowned as one of the world’s most celebrated gossip columnists, has a magnificent new book just out called Change of Heart: A Black Man, A White Woman, A Heart Transplant, and A True Love Story. The book traces the lives of Robert Dunn, an African American heart recipient, and Dorothy Moore, his white Irish Catholic donor, how their lives intersected, and the emotional change he experienced as a result.
I literally could not put this succinct, easy to read enthralling book down. It’s surely on its way to becoming a bestseller. I got in touch with Mitchell Fink as soon as I was done.
LS-Mitchell, this story is utterly fascinating. Tell me the beginnings of how this got your attention.
MF-When I first heard about the story, I only knew that here was a guy who had a mechanical heart, which is a device that is often implanted in a patient as a bridge to a human heart, or until such time as a human heart becomes available. After he got the human heart, he carried around the secret that his donor was a white Irish Catholic woman. He couldn’t tell anybody because of the terror he had faced as a child at the hand of white Irish Catholics. To me there was no story unless we could find the donor’s family and perhaps allow Robert to confront his racial fears and maybe heal his tormented childhood. He and I both knew he was running the risk that the donor’s family might be even more racist than the whites he encountered throughout his early life.
LS-You’ve been a journalist for years, in the trenches breaking celebrity stories and news stories. You’re also a best-selling author. You’ve seen it all. What about this particular story grabbed you as a writer?
MF-It was the transformation of one human being as a direct result of a gift from another human being. The fact that it was about a black man, a white woman, racial tension and racial healing one person at a time, made it a worthwhile investigation. The fact that a change of heart, which is an essentially a common medical procedure, led to a much deeper more frightening change of psyche and a change of soul. When I realized that, I was all-in.
LS-You became like a brother to Robert Dunn. He was quite famous for a time because of the OJ Simpson trial. What was he like?
MF-In many ways he was becoming New York’s version of Johnnie Cochran. He was an incredible lawyer, a man of great personality and style who started with nothing except a desire to correct every wrong that had been done to black people since the beginning of time. He was filled with anger, rage, suspicion, fear, hurt, guilt and shame. In the end though, he managed to turn all of that into love.
LS-You’re also still close to his family and Dorothy’s family. Do you all stay in touch?
MF- Yes, absolutely. Robert’s mother and sister have wonderful relationships today with Dorothy’s mother and sister. I stay in touch with everyone. I couldn’t have told this story without their complete cooperation.
LS-The buzz on the book is huge now. Hollywood is circling too. Why do you think people across this country are responding to it with such enthusiasm and fervor? I read a review that the book’s message resonates like the phenomenal bestseller, “The Bridges of Madison County.”
MF-I think it resonates because of the drama and the trauma these two people separately faced throughout their lives. I could not have possibly made up this story. How many people do you know who received a transplant and then later fell in love with their donor who was already dead? Not many, probably not any.
LS-What about the state of organ transplant in this country? The book speaks to that as well.
MF-I’m sure there are not as many people donating their organs, as there are people who need them. But numbers and need aside, the medical facilitators of transplants – the doctors, the hospitals, the various “Gift of Life” advocacy groups – prefer that recipients and donor families remain anonymous. There are psychological, medical and sociological reasons for this anonymity. I suppose they’re all legitimate. But if Robert Dunn had spent his life after the transplant never knowing about his donor and what she went through just to live the life she lived, he never would have been as fulfilled in his own life. He never would have experienced the emotional depth or realized his own worth as an individual. He never would have experienced the love he experienced as a result of that transplant. I never would have had this book to write and people would have known squat about the extraordinarily dramatic stories of these two truly brave people.
LS-Mitchell, finally, what did you learn as a jaded journalist/author all these years?
MF-That I’m not so jaded after all. That I’m still incredibly attracted to a great story.
Change of Heart: A Black Man, A White Woman, A Heart Transplant, and A True Love Story is available on Amazon
The E Book Link is:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/113797