Heredity

Smart, blonde, and self-destructive, Elizabeth Mann thinks that leaving New York for a London travel-writing job will solve all her problems with her father, a well-known American infertility specialist. She couldn? t be more wrong: in a museum of medical curiosities at the Royal College of Surgeons, her daydreams over the skeleton of Jonathan Wild - a notorious eighteenth-century bounty-hunter - are interrupted by an encounter with Gideon Streetcar, an attractive gynaecologist with asthma and a low sperm count. Not only is Gideon married, he? s also a former student of Elizabeth? s father; yet Elizabeth fast assumes the humiliating, exhilarating role of Gideon? s secret mistress. As her obsession with Jonathan Wild grows, Elizabeth decides that with Gideon? s help, she will give birth to the bounty-hunter? s clone. An impressive debut, Heredity is a virtuoso tale about the world of fertility and genetic cloning.