Siddhartha Mukherjee has that rare quality of making it sound like he’s cramming a bucketload of information in his words, all the while not losing brevity. In The Emperor of All Maladies, this quality was suppressed – the topic of cancer is weighty, and thus brevity was preserved over information density. This quality is out in full force in Gene, so you must take a breather every fifty or sixty pages.
Genecovers so much information about genetics that after finishing it, you will feel that you have absorbed those information pellets sometimes found in science fiction. It follows a similar pathway to The Emperor, with Mukherjee tracking the story of genetics from its ancestors (including debunked theories such as the sperm-containing mini-children) to the present, where we’re making quantum leaps in the field every few years.
Aside from its remarkable history, the novel delves into the gene and what makes it tick. For example - how mutations mess with (or improve) a genome, how DNA can be combined to form recombinant DNA not generally found on a genome, how gene editing works, and how our genome can have a genetic ‘memory’ of sorts.
More soberly, however, Mukherjee illuminates the reader with digressions centred on his family – and how mental illness was so pervasive in his family. It lends the entire novel a human touch that you cannot help but reflect on. Saying that the gene has been at the forefront of modern is something else, but saying that it has impacted the author’s life brings it into some perspective – not missing the trees for the forest, if you will.
Gene is a rich and illuminating history of genetics and digressions into its probable future. I am not sure where genetics will land in even twenty years – but I now know watching the field progress will be breathtaking. ( )

Engaging and readable, neither dumbed-down nor densely academic. Very interesting to get an overview of developments since I left uni (and of everything I didn't learn there as well). ( )

Science writing for the general reader done as it should be done - detailed, accurate, and engaging. It's a big book, and the reading is necessarily slow, but worth the effort. ( )

Un sujet évidement crucial et méconnu. Une approche historique et éthique claire et détaillée. ( )

Beautifully written. Great coverage of both the history of genetics and also the how-it-works part, combined with interesting stories about his own family and thoughtful discussions about the moral issues involved. ( )