University College Cork’s Boole Library Adds “The Silence Between Two Heartbeats” to Its Collection

The Silence Between Two Heartbeats has been selected for the collection of the Boole Library at University College Cork (UCC), one of Ireland’s leading research universities.

The addition places the book within a library with deep academic roots. UCC’s collections of books and manuscripts have been built up since the university opened in 1849, and the Boole Library itself opened in September 1983, named after George Boole, the first Professor of Mathematics at what was then Queen’s College, Cork. Beyond serving the university, the library acts as a regional information service and a repository of the cultural and historical heritage of the Munster region.

The selection comes during a strong period for the university. UCC rose 26 places in the QS World University Rankings 2027, published on 18 June 2026, to 220th in the world — its fourth straight year of improvement and its highest position in thirteen years. More than 8,800 universities across 106 countries were evaluated for that ranking. The university’s literary scholarship is also internationally recognized: English Language and Literature at UCC was ranked 82nd in the world in the 2026 QS World University Rankings by Subject.

Published on August 10, 2026, The Silence Between Two Heartbeats follows a family through a newborn’s stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and a diagnosis of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen and blood flow around the time of birth. Told from a father’s perspective, it explores the fear, waiting and resilience that shape a family’s earliest days in the NICU.

Its inclusion at UCC gives students, faculty and researchers in fields such as literature, medicine, nursing and the health humanities access to a lived-experience account of neonatal care and HIE.

The UCC placement joins a growing list of institutional collections holding the book, including Harvard Medical School’s Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, the National Library of Peru, the National Library of Bangladesh, and family-resource libraries at Boston Children’s Hospital and the University of Rochester Medical Center.

The Silence Between Two Heartbeats is available from Barnes & Noble and Amazon. More information is available at thesilence.us.