The Dismantling
A Novel
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
How much of yourself are you willing to sell?
At twenty-five, Simon Worth is a med school dropout, facing the grim reality of failure and massive student loans. Left with few options, he becomes an organ broker for a black-market organization, matching cash-strapped donors with recipients whose time on the transplant list is running out.
Tasked with finding a donor for Lenny Pellegrini, a severely depressed ex-NFL player who’s been drinking himself to death, Simon’s luck appears to change when he’s contacted by Maria Campos, a young woman desperate for cash whose liver happens to be the perfect match.
The transplant goes according to plan . . . until soon afterward, when Maria disappears and Lenny makes a cruel and destructive decision. As Simon’s world becomes increasingly dangerous, he learns of an unspeakable secret from Maria’s past and must decide, against his better moral judgment, that the only way he’ll survive is to trust her.
Chilling and fast-paced, The Dismantling questions the meaning of atonement and asks how you can reconcile the person you once were—and the person you want to be—with the person you are today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Simon Worth, a failed New York medical school student, and Maria Campos, a Los Angeles woman seeking a new start, connect in DeLeeuw's powerful novel about illegal organ transplants. Simon, at loose ends and deep in debt after dropping out of med school, meets Peter DaSilva, who runs Health Solutions and presents a convincing argument that matching willing donors (who need the money) and patients (who can afford to pay for transplants otherwise unavailable) is a useful, though illegal, service. He also covers Simon's debts and pays him for successful matches. Maria is a match for the first liver transplant Simon arranges; the intended recipient is a former pro footballer, Leonard Pellegrini. The system DaSilva has developed is smoothly professional, but its fragility is exposed when the transplant has complications. DeLeeuw (In This Way I Was Saved) skillfully probes the motivations of all those involved, in particular the personal issues that brought Simon and Maria to play their respective parts.
