Informative, disgusting and utterly fascinating

Reading Hotel Babylon is like mainlining Popbitch

A 5-Star read. Imogen Edwards-Jones takes readers on a brilliant romp that's just as luxurious as the presidential suite and definitely a whole lot funnier

Makes shock revelation after shock revelation

Fascinating

Explosive

Five stars for excess... amusing and appalling

An eye-opener...with plenty of tips for the frequent traveller

His sweeping and compellingly told history – and there is no more accessible and vivid survey available – is about hubristic ambition as much as stunning achievement.

Magisterial ... [The Gene] will confirm [Mukherjee] as our era’s preeminent popular historian of medicine. The Gene boasts an even more ambitious sweep of human endeavor than its predecessor ... Mukherjee punctuates his encyclopaedic investigations of collective and individual heritability, and our closing in on the genetic technologies that will transform how we will shape our own genome, with evocative personal anecdotes, deft literary allusions, wonderfully apt metaphors, and an irrepressible intellectual brio

[It] takes a monumental and complex subject which is woven into every part of our lives and makes it both gripping and accessible.

Not just first-class science writing but an important intellectual contribution in its own right.

He writes with the natural flate of a seasoned novelist… [The Gene] is a pleasure to read… This is an exceptional book, and I thoroughly recommend it to every inquisitive person.

The book is compassionate, tautly synthesized… A page-turner.

Mukherjee is an outstanding guide…[The Gene] is a remarkably instructive, stimulating and, at every level of its generous construction, artful work of popular science.

Visceral and thought-provoking descriptions of the horrors of early-twentieth-century US eugenics.

Virtuoso performance… Remarkably clear and compelling prose… Glorious tour of human genetics.

Remarkable and thought-provoking book… Mukherjee explores in considerable and lucid detail… What he does magnificently is trace the history of the gene in illuminating detail… If you want to know what is happening now, this is an essential read.

Outstanding... an exceptional writer

A sweeping history of genetic theory and a considered look at where it might lead us in the future.

Dazzling... There is nothing about Gene that is less than nuanced.

A magnificent synthesis of the science of life, and forces all to confront the essence of that science as well as the ethical and philosophical challenges to our conception of what constitutes being human

Wise and lucid...excellent

A tourist guide to the new Africa, the human genome… Mukherjee gives an exhaustive account of the development of the modern science of inheritance… Mukherjee does a good job of cutting away the web of ambiguity and complexity’

Written with the rollicking enthusiasm of sports journalism… Mukherjee has an ear for his subject’s rhetorical brilliance.

Meticulous… Carefully constructed, deliberate prose.

Makes a compelling case that our ability to harness the medical benefits of genomic science while avoiding its hazards promises to be among the defining challenges of the 21st century.

Mukherjee has done readers an admirable service, by turning one of the most important scientific sagas – arguably the most important – in history into a tale that is too good not to know

Rather wonderful book… All-encompassing and eye-opening and moving and amusing, at times, and endlessly fascinating and truly brilliant… As long as intelligent, empathetic, thoughtful people like himself are to the forefront, it should turn out alright.

An accessible and beautifully written overview of the complex field of genetics by the Indian-born doctor. It’s compellingly personal and provocative, too.

Mukherjee views his subject panoptically from a great and clarifying height, yet also intimately.

Dr Mukherjee uses personal experience to particularly good effect… He writes tenderly.

[A] Magisterial historical survey.

Mukherjee has a gift for making gripping, vivid narrative out of the cataclysmic but largely invisible drama of molecular biology.

Compelling

Fascinating, complex and accessible.

Intimate, insider’s account of the role that genetics.

A tourist guide to the twenty-first century’s uncharted continent, the human genome... Gives a full and lively account of the development of the subject... He has talked to many of the main players and gives deep insights into their moments of discovery... Mukherjee does a good job of cutting away the web of ambiguity and complexity that scientists have woven.

A daring and highly personal voyage into the future of genetic research

The Gene’s dominant traits are historical breadth, clinical compassion, and Mukherjee’s characteristic graceful style… Mukherjee writes eloquently

A fine read, with many fine stories.

[It is] accessible and beautifully written… It’s compellingly personal and provocative, too.

The Gene is a staggeringly impressive piece of writing… [It] takes us on a fascinating journey through the world of genetics… Written with a clarity that brings the most complex concepts to life… An accessible, gripping and thought-provoking read. In short, this book is a masterpiece and you should read it.

An essential read.

Inspiring and tremendously evocative

A fascinating read

You may think this book is not for you. Thing again… My only caution would be not to recommend it to too many people… So whether you’re a teacher or parent attempting to inspire…or you simply want an erudite anecdote, this book is for you. It’s a dazzling example of scientific story-telling and definitely my book of the year.

An epic 150-year, 500-plus page journey of genetic discovery… [An] excellent and authoritative account.

This is a brilliantly readable celebration of the science and scientists who have transformed out understanding of what it means to be human.

The Gene is a truly impressive achievement… Mukherjee has created a masterwork of the history of the gene and its study. In this popular science book, scientist and non-scientist readers alike will feel they have a true understanding of the history, biology and ethics of genetics.

He deftly lays out a history of the gene… One of the great science books of the decade with an engagingly enthusiastic personality at its heart.

[A]superbly written tale.

Mukherjee writes with clarity and passion… This should prove a fascinating read for anyone interested in understanding how far the study of the gene has taken us, particularly with respect to medicine, and where the future may lie.

Ambitious and honest, The Gene sheds light on both our past and future.

Mukherjee’s text brims with potential… Surely The Gene has to be the new bible for a new generation of aspiring biologists, biochemists and, frankly, thinking people? So whether you’re a teacher or parent attempting to inspire a reluctant teen to get excited about science, or you simply want an erudite anecdote, this book is for you. It’s a dazzling example of scientific story-telling, and definitely my book of the year.

If you want a good overview of the history of the gene, you can’t go wrong starting here.

A provocative and engaging [read].

Mukherjee’s prose tends to be lavish, but this befits the weighty topic, and his explanatory style is clear yet enveloping… Compelling scientific and medical storytelling… A spectacular effort from an author I hopes has plenty more tales to tell.

An essential guide to biology.

A brilliant, chunky, study of genes.

This book captures the progression from that intuitive sense of genetics to its birth as a veritable science and, for better or for worse, its evolution into a powerful tool… The book ends not with a conclusion, but with a feeling of anticipation… In many ways, The Gene is a call for caution and for a thoughtful consideration of the possibilities that progress may bring… When genes become tools, what will those tools be used for? As we try to answer that question, Mukherjee’s book asks us to carefully look back before we continue to move forward

A comprehensive – and gripping – history of the gene