How to Save a Life

Carter (a pseudonym for English author Kate Harrison) serves up a heartfelt if uneven love story that turns on a love triangle and a health crisis. On New Year’s Eve in 1999, a group of Brighton, England, high school classmates gather to celebrate. Golden boy Joel, already on track for a career in the Premier League, collapses during a pickup game. Kerry (who harbors a secret crush on Joel) and Tim (who has a secret crush on Kerry) both hope to become doctors, and have already undergone first response training. But while Kerry remains coolheaded and successfully performs CPR, Tim is paralyzed by inaction—only to accept most of the credit after Joel survives. Joel, who suffers from a previously unknown heart ailment, grows bitter when he learns his soccer aspirations are over for good. Kerry and Tim, too, are shaped both personally and professionally by how each chose to respond in Joel’s moment of crisis. This dynamic continues to play out over the course of the next 18 years, as romantic relationships are complicated by addiction, infidelity, and jealousy, and one leg of the love triangle eventually falls off. While the novel’s earlier portions plod along and its last quarter feels hurried, Carter delivers plenty of drama. Readers will champion these characters’ efforts to find themselves. (May)