The Gene
Pulitzer-winning oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee writes the biography of the gene, tracing the idea of heredity from Mendel's monastery pea plants through Darwin's evolutionary puzzles, the eugenics catastrophes of early 20th-century Europe and America, the discovery of the double helix, the Human Genome Project, and the present-day CRISPR revolution. Mukherjee weaves his own family history of mental illness through the science, asking how genetic knowledge reshapes identity and ethics. The book moves through scientists, patients, and political horrors to build a biography of the unit of inheritance itself.
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Pulitzer-winning oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee writes the biography of the gene from Mendel's pea plants to CRISPR, with his own family history of mental illness woven through.
The Gene was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2017. Siddhartha Mukherjee won the 2011 Pulitzer for The Emperor of All Maladies, his earlier book about cancer.
Yes. Ken Burns produced a 2020 PBS documentary based on The Gene, directed by Barak Goodman. It is the second of Mukherjee's books to be adapted by Burns after The Emperor of All Maladies.
The Gene was written by Siddhartha Mukherjee, published in 2016 by Scribner.
The Gene is 594 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Gene takes most readers 9 to 13 hours to finish.
The Gene is a standalone novel by Siddhartha Mukherjee, not part of a series.
The Gene is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
