On Tuesday, March 12th at 7:30pm Warwick's will host Stuart Jamieson as he discusses and signs his new book, Close to the Sun: The Journey of a Pioneer Heart Surgeon. Dr. Stuart W. Jamieson is an internationally renowned heart surgeon, a heart- and lung-transplant pioneer, and a veteran of more than 40,000 heart surgeries. He is Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Dean of Cardiovascular Affairs at the University of California San Diego, where he has worked since 1989. This event is free and open to the public. Reserved Seating is available when the book is pre-ordered from Warwick's for the event. Only books purchased from Warwick's will be signed. Please call the Warwick's Book Dept. (858) 454-0347 for details.

Dr. Stuart Jamieson recalls the astonishing image of a chest opened for surgery with an empty place at the center. The date was July 4, 1979 and Jamieson was about to perform his first heart transplant.

Though thousands of heart transplants are now performed each year worldwide, in 1979 the operation was still subject to frequent failure. In his book, Close to the Sun, Jamieson takes us on a journey back to those days and into the research labs and operating rooms where transplant surgery was being refined. Jamieson was responsible for many of those advances. He is the veteran of more than 40,000 heart surgeries and the author of more than 500 scientific papers, detailing his seminal work in heart, heart-lung transplants, double-lung transplants and the development of cyclosporine. That anti-rejection drug removed the leading obstacle to transplant surgery, thereby dramatically improving success rates.

Closer to the Sun chronicles the education, trials and triumphs of a physician and examines Jamieson's formative years in a land of natural beauty, racial apartheid and at a harsh boarding school, where physical beatings were common.

Born in R