"This remarkable speculative novel explores what it means to be human through a thought-provoking, pacey story of genetic manipulation, and the sacrifice of individuals in the name of science."
Arguably Sebastian Faulks’ finest novel to date (which is really saying something), The Seventh Son is one of the most profoundly human and emotionally engaging works of speculative fiction you could hope to read.
Set in the near future, the novel poses monumental questions around who we are as a species, nature versus nurture, scientific ethics, and what it means to be human. If that wasn’t enough, The Seventh Son also explores that most human of characteristics - love - and abuses of wealth and power. And all this delivered in page-turning style.
When young American academic Talissa needs to fund her postdoctoral research position, she decides to answer a call for surrogate mothers from the Parn Institute. Having been turned down for a position on one of their research programmes, she already knows their work. Though she describes its billionaire founder as “the Buddha of Bullsh*t,” she believes the organisation itself is “straight-up,” with a “sh*t-load of money”, and “proper scientists”.
So, she signs up to carry another woman’s baby, to help a couple realise their dream of having a child, while also (purportedly) helping the Institute’s research into the success rate of IVF in relation to genetics.
But, as things turn out, the Parn Institute is actually engaging in experimental IVF treatments that bash the boundaries of ethics. When the child is born, he’s markedly different — a hybrid of human and Neanderthal.
What follows is an intense, characterful account of the personal repercussions of the Institute’s actions – actions that are of sweeping significance to the whole of humanity — to deliver a story that will surely have comparably sweeping impact on readers.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
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A CHILD WILL BE BORN WHO WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING When a young American academic Talissa Adam offers to carry another woman's child, she has no idea of the life-changing consequences. Behind the doors of the Parn Institute, a billionaire entrepreneur plans to stretch the boundaries of ethics as never before.
The Seventh Son features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Star Books, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations, Speculative fiction
Paperback, Hardback. £9.89, down from the £10.99 cover price. In Stock.
The Seventh Son was written by Sebastian Faulks and published by Penguin (Cornerstone) an imprint of Cornerstone
The Seventh Son has 356 pages
£9.89, reduced from £10.99. In Stock.
