Sibley's debut dissects the ethics of a patient's right to die with dignity as a family is torn by a decision to terminate life support. Neurosurgeon Matt Beaulieu finally marries the love of his life, astrophysicist Elle McClure, having known her since he was two years old. After several miscarriages, the couple give up on the idea of having a baby, but when Elle falls and suffers severe head trauma, Matt's life falls completely apart. He knows her biggest fear was to die on life support, as her mother did. During preparations to remove her from life support, it's discovered that she is pregnant and if she remains connected she could potentially carry the fetus to term. Matt decides her desire to have a child would supersede her fear of life support, but his own mother takes him to court as executor of Elle's living will. Jake Sutter, Matt's college roommate, takes the case, using Matt's personal dilemma to serve his own prolife political agenda. The family's anguish is agonizing, each member doing what they believe to be Elle's desire or in her best interest, and while the ending is predictable, the journey is heartrending and tragic. Agent: Laney Katz Becker, Markson Thoma Literary Agency. (Feb.)
Sibley does a wonderful job of exploring a complex and controversial moral issue, skillfully giving both sides of the story…. This is a gripping, thoughtful, heart-wrenching, and well-written debut that would be a great discussion vehicle for certain book groups.
The Promise of Stardust is a riveting story of a family ripped apart by an impossible choice. You will live these characters’ lives like they are your own, and race through the pages of this engrossing, deeply moving novel.
The Promise of Stardust is a story about love and sacrifice, conflict and hope. I couldn’t put it down and when I open it next time, I’ll read it more slowly. Highly recommended. A winner!
Sibley wrestles with the most complex medical ethics in our time and gives us characters who will stay with us long after the last page. She is a skilled story teller.
Sibley does a wonderful job of exploring a complex and controversial moral issue, skillfully giving both sides of the story…. This is a gripping, thoughtful, heart-wrenching, and well-written debut that would be a great discussion vehicle for certain book groups.
Elle is brain dead, and shattered husband Matt is about to pull the plug when he learns that she is pregnant. But Matt's own mother is ready to take him to court to assure that Elle is removed from life support, which she insists Elle would have wanted. Great book club choice; with a 100,000-copy first printing.
Personal tragedy becomes an ethical and legal quandary in Sibley's debut literary fiction. Dr. Matt Beaulieu is a Maine neurosurgeon. His college professor wife, Elle McClure, was once a hero astronaut. Matt and Elle grew up as neighbors, their two families intertwined into one. Now, they are best friends and blissfully in love, their marriage marred only by repeated miscarriages. One summer morning, Matt is off to work and Elle is off to help her acrophobic brother clean windows. She falls from a ladder and strikes her head. Emergency surgery reveals "subarachnoid bleeding and shearing." But then during a trauma work-up to declare brain death, which would allow the devastated Matt to cease extraordinary care, Elle is discovered to be pregnant. Realizing a piece of Elle might live on, Matt enters a legal whirlwind. It seems Matt's mother, Linney, holds Elle's advanced care directive. As a teen, Elle had signed the directive after her own mother died slowly and painfully from cancer. Linney, an obstetrical nurse, wants to follow Elle's directive to the letter. "It's just wrong to keep her in this state, as an incubator for something that isn't even a baby yet." Enter Jake Sutter, attorney, Matt's college roommate, and incidentally, a pro-life advocate. The media circus begins, growing even more twisted when another advanced care directive is brought forth by Dr. Adam Cunningham, a NASA scientist with whom Elle had lived when she and Matt were estranged. While the novel is a fictionalized Schiavo-like intrafamily moral war, Sibley ups the ethical stakes by interweaving pregnancy with end-of-life issues. Characters are well-drawn, although the arrogant vindictiveness of Cunningham may be overblown. While she does take the easy way out regarding the end-of-life question, Sibley translates medical and legal issues solidly, bringing both emotion and reason into an examination of our collective failure to agree upon when life begins and ends. A literate and incandescent Nicholas Sparks-like love story complicated by intense moral and ethical questions.
I read this first novel two times. The first time, I was intrigued. The second time, I felt privileged to share in such an amazing story.” — Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean
“In The Promise of Stardust Sibley explores an ethical dilemma in a way that might lead you to question your own beliefs. Woven with elegance through a twenty-year love story, the novel takes numerous twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages.” — Catherine McKenzie, Internationally bestselling author of FORGOTTEN
“Sibley wrestles with the most complex medical ethics in our time and gives us characters who will stay with us long after the last page. She is a skilled story teller.” — Jacqueline Sheehan, New York Times bestselling author of Lost & Found
“I loved this book. Priscille Sibley manages a delicate and brave balance with this gripping novel.” — Katrina Kittle, author of The Kindness of Strangers and The Blessings of the Animals
“Sibley does a wonderful job of exploring a complex and controversial moral issue, skillfully giving both sides of the story…. This is a gripping, thoughtful, heart-wrenching, and well-written debut that would be a great discussion vehicle for certain book groups.” — Booklist
“The Promise of Stardust is a story about love and sacrifice, conflict and hope. I couldn’t put it down and when I open it next time, I’ll read it more slowly. Highly recommended. A winner!” — Patricia Harman CNM, author of The Midwife of Hope River
“There’s nothing like devastating moral quandary to spark reading, and this trade paperback original would be a great book club choice…” — Library Journal
“A literate and incandescent Nicholas Sparks-like love story complicated by intense moral and ethical questions.” — Kirkus Reviews
“The Promise of Stardust is a riveting story of a family ripped apart by an impossible choice. You will live these characters’ lives like they are your own, and race through the pages of this engrossing, deeply moving novel.” — Kristina Riggle, author of Keepsake
“Sibley’s debut dissects the ethics of a patient’s right to die with dignity… the journey is heartrending and tragic.” — Publishers Weekly
I loved this book. Priscille Sibley manages a delicate and brave balance with this gripping novel.
I read this first novel two times. The first time, I was intrigued. The second time, I felt privileged to share in such an amazing story.
In The Promise of Stardust Sibley explores an ethical dilemma in a way that might lead you to question your own beliefs. Woven with elegance through a twenty-year love story, the novel takes numerous twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages.
"The Promise of Stardust is a story about love and sacrifice, conflict and hope. I couldn’t put it down and when I open it next time, I’ll read it more slowly. Highly recommended. A winner!"