National Book Critics Circle Award—2017 Nonfiction Finalist

"Nothing less than a tour de force—a heady amalgam of science, history, a little bit of anthropology and plenty of nuanced, captivating storytelling."—The New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice

A National Geographic Best Book of 2017

In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our species—births,...

As the Human Genome Project completed its mapping of the entire human genome, hopes ran high that we would rapidly be able to use our knowledge of human genes to tackle many inherited diseases, and understand what makes us unique among animals. But things didn't turn out that way... but the emerging picture is if anything far more exciting. Parrington gives an outline of the deeper genome, involving layers of regulatory elements controlling and coordinating...

"If you share most of the same genetic material, what makes you so different from your siblings? How much are the things you choose to do everyday--what you eat, how you vote, who you love--determined by your genes, and how much is your own free will? Using fascinating case studies of identical twins, leading geneticist Tim Spector explains how even real-life "clones" with the same upbringing turn out in reality to be very different. Drawing on his...