Gene

Back Cover Text (From the Promotional Bulletin)

“We thought our future was in the stars. “We now know it is in our genes.”

- James Watson, one of the Nobel Prize-winning discoverers of DNA -

Gen. The source code that builds and defines human beings. The most human thing we have. And these days, when we move from understanding it to being able to direct it, it is perhaps the subject of the greatest test of wisdom that our species will ever give.

Siddhartha Mukherjee, who won the Pulitzer with The King of All Diseases, takes us on a magnificent journey on the birth, development and future of one of the most powerful and dangerous ideas in the history of science, starting from the history of schizophrenia in his own family. An idea that germinated with Mendel's peas blossomed with Darwin, turned into a dangerous weapon in the hands of the Nazis and settled at the forefront of race and identity debates, then modern genetics, the human genome map and that big question: If it is possible to play with genetics and determine the fate and identities of our children, human What does it mean to be? How do we navigate the moral labyrinth of genetic science?

A Royal Academy Science Book Award and Wellcome Book Prize Finalist, GENE – A Highly Personal Story is an extraordinary book that unequivocally demonstrates that genetics is not just a laboratory science but an inevitable part of our tomorrow.

This is perhaps the greatest detective story ever told. Thousands of researchers, from Aristotle to Francis Collins, have been trying to solve the question marks at the center of every cell for millennia. Just like The King of All Diseases, The Gene is a brilliant, absorbing and enthusiastic book. “What does it mean to be human?” If you are wondering the answer to the question, you have to read this book.

- ANTHONY DOERR -

Original Cover Design: Suzanne Dean

Page and Cover Adaptation: Betül Güzhan