A Match to the Heart/One Woman’s Story of Being Struck by Lightning

A powerful chronicle of a wounded woman's exploration of nature and self

After nature writer Gretel Ehrlich was struck by lightning near her Wyoming ranch and almost died, she embarked on a painstaking and visionary journey back to the land of the living. With the help of an extraordinary cardiologist and the companionship of her beloved dog Sam, she avidly explores the natural and spiritual world to make sense of what happened to her. We follow as she combs every inch of her new home on the California coast, attends a convention of lightning-strike victims, and goes on a seal watch in Alaska. Ehrlich then turns her focus inward, exploring the tiny but equally fascinating ecosystem of the human heart, and culminated in a stunningly beautiful description of open-heart surgery.

Gretel Ehrlich is a poet and writer whose work includes This Cold Heaven; The Solace of Open Spaces; Islands, the Universe; the novel, Heart Mountain; and the memoir A Match to the Heart. She is the recipient of the Whiting Writers’ Award and the Henry David Thoreau Prize.