WINNER—Books for a Better Life Award (click here to read more) FINALIST—Borders Original Voice Award Good Housekeeping "Good Reads, Book Pick" for October! Glamour Magazine (Oct. '07) #2 of the "7 things you'll love this month" (click to view page) "Twenty years ago at age 25 Amy got a life-saving heart transplant. But that medical miracle is only part of her amazing story. The rest will surprise you. And inspire you and choke you up with tears and laughter. SICK GIRL by Amy Silverstein. Highly recommended."    —Larry King "Amy Silverstein is not an easy patient, with good reason. She has lived twenty long years with a transplanted heart; much longer than any doctor could have predicted. And she has, arguably, done more with a transplanted heart than anyone else, including the publication of this remarkable book. It documents her fears, frustrations, anger and perseverance. She recognizes that the world expects a simpering bundle of gratitude. In her compelling memoir, SICK GIRL, Amy delivers a searing insight into the arduous and often depressing battle to stay alive. And yet, there is also love and humor, and a radiant courage."    —Ted Koppel "I've never thought much about living day to day, month to month, year to year with another person's organ. The stories I've read and TV specials I've seen have fostered my assumption that beneficiaries of a transplant think they have been given a gift by godlike doctors who worked a medical miracle. And then, a few days ago, I read SICK GIRL, written by a woman who got a new heart when she was only 24 and has struggled every one of the 20 years since. It shocked me. It was a revelation. I couldn't stop reading it. How could I have been so naive?"    —Avery Comarow, US News & World Report blog (read the full blog post here) "Unsparing...the life of a heart transplant patient is an intricate, often frustrating duet with impending death. It sometimes seems that memoirs already have detailed every possible affliction and condition, but Silverstein's tills new territory."    —Seattle Post-Intelligencer "[A] compelling memoir...Silverstein's humor and devotion to her husband and son see her through, and by the end you'll be rooting for her next twenty years."    — People Magazine, (3 stars) "Silverstein was a 23-year-old law student when tightness in her chest and episodes of fainting first sent her to her family doctor, who advised her to eat more salt to get her blood pressure up. A year later the same doctor told her she had congestive heart failure and sent her to a cardiologist. After various tests, including a heart biopsy, Oprah Magazine (Oct. '07) "True Stories of Love, Loss, Longing" (click to view page) he told her she had heart muscle damage, presumably from a virus, put her on medication and then referred her to another cardiologist, who sent her to another. The author's keen assessments of her doctors, her confrontations with them, her expectations and disappointments are among the book's best moments. After a near-fatal episode of ventricular fibrillation, Silverstein agreed to a heart transplant, unaware of how it would change her life. Shortly after her 25th birthday she received a healthy 13-year-old heart. She had to take daily medications, including strong immunosuppressives to prevent rejection. "I had made a deal with the Devil," she writes. "In return for one precariously pulsating organ, I would endure a lifetime of poison and all its ill effects." Her attempts to lead a normal life included marrying one year later, finishing law school, practicing law and eventually becoming an adoptive mother. At her wedding, she successfully posed as a healthy bride, but continuing to keep up appearances was extraordinarily difficult. Hospitalizations for invasive tests occurred regularly; infections plagued her weakened and vulnerable immune system. While working to create the impression of health and energy, she often felt nauseated, exhausted and misunderstood. When, after 17 years a suspicious lump suggested she might have cancer, she was ready to call it quits. She didn't, however, and the heart that was expected to last no more than a decade has now kept Silverstein alive for 20 years. Sets the record straight about a so-called medical miracle."    —Kirkus Reviews "The odds confronted in Silverstein's memoir, SICK GIRL, are daunting, and the crowning miracle is that she wrote this feisty, insightful, improbable book at all. Silverstein has cheated death to thrive in her post-transplant existence and to write about it with incredible courage, determination, self-scrutiny, and verve."    —Elle Magazine (view the article here) "Just when you think you are having a bad day, a book like this comes along and smacks you right back into reality. Ms. Silverstein's harrowing account of her experiences as a heart transplant patient—at the still-innocent age of 25—is good reminder to count your blessings... She brilliantly—and painfully—outlines her body's reaction to "the war of chemicals" she must take like clockwork no matter what she's doing—even the celebration of her wedding must be paused for consumption..."    —Wicked Smart Woman Blog (read the full post here) "SICK GIRL....is a tale hardly any of us have ever heard, one with the potential to shake up the medical establishment and make it take notice. You may think you don't want to read a book like this...but your reluctance will quickly vanish as Silverstein's book enthralls you, her writing skills taking you directly into her life, her mind, and her body as you accompany her through the journey of her life-altering experience."    —Life Extension Magazine "Silverstein is an inspired storyteller. Her engaging language and sharp insight make SICK GIRL both compelling and moving. Few of us undergo a heart transplant at twenty-five, but we can recognize our own stories in this incisive, unflinching look at life, love, and extraordinary courage."    —Susan Cheever, author of Home Before Dark "Spectacular...Heart transplant patients live along the jagged edges of the abyss that most mortals fear. By bravely peeking over the edge, Amy Silverstein shares with us the brutal reality of being a 'survivor.'"    —Dr. Mehmet Oz, cardiothoracic surgeon, co-author of YOU: The Owner's Manual "Truly compelling, SICK GIRL sucked me in from the get-go. Amy Silverstein's story is amazing and inspiring."    —Mary Roach, author of Stiff "Silverstein's autobiography draws readers inside her mesmeric human drama of living life as a heart transplant recipient. Make no mistake: the author, an Ivy League-trained lawyer and superb writer with a wry, biting sense of humor, immediately debunks preconceptions about a transplanted heart as a "cure" for a failed one (she was 24 at the time of the procedure). Indeed, she strips away the layers of her 20-year medical "recovery" and reveals her anger toward the "white coats" (as she refers to her physicians), her desire to one day have some semblance of a "normal" life, and her unshakable love for her husband, Scott, and their son, Casey. Silverstein is a natural raconteur with a story so compelling readers won't want to put this book down." (starred review)    —Library Journal Q & A's WITH AMY Why are you still alive? Amy: "I have an amazing match with that [13-year-old] girl's heart. They did a test on me last year that matches about 10 characteristics between the donated organ and the body it goes into. I matched 9 of 10—unheard of for hearts..."    —Health Magazine (view the article here) It's not easy to live with a transplanted heart, yet your book is really the first time your friends and family had a glimpse of how hard it is. Amy: "Yeah. People don't recognize that it's hard because I'm not toting around an oxygen tank, and I appear to be fine. I kind of live a disguised life..."    —Marie Claire Magazine (view the article here) IN THE NEWS "I unzipped myself in this book which was not flattering," Silverstein said. "I have had many shining moments in my life, but Sick Girl shows the handful of moments where I fell apart and my back was against the wall, which I felt would be more valued by readers."    —New York University Alumni Connect eNewsletter (view the article here) "Because I have a transplanted heart, a minor illness can go bad—very fast. But there's one thing about living at the edge of a precipice: It gives me a great view..."    —Prevention Magazine, "My Body, My Battleground," by Amy Silverstein (view the article here) "If you are looking for a sickeningly sweet "Hallmark movie of the week" type of story, look elsewhere... SICK GIRL is an uplifting autobiographical tale of a different, more candid variety..."    —Metro Papers (view the article here) BUY THE BOOK Amazon Barnes & Noble Books-A-Million Borders Book Sense Grove/Atlantic hardcover (October 2007); ISBN: 0802118542; ISBN-13: 9780802118547