Breathing on glass
By: Jennifer Cryer
Publisher: Abacus
Published: 2013
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 312
ISBN-13: 9780349000084
Subjects: Biotechnology; Fiction; Stem cells; Research
Description: Rhea - dark, intense and brilliant - and her golden, voluptuous sister Amber are not alike, but they are bound tighter than most : by love, by the loss of their father and by the man who stands between them. Lewis is Amber's husband and the ferociously driven director of the biotech lab where Rhea is a rising star. In search of funding, academic advancement and in alchemical pursuit of the perfect stem cell -- their Holy Grail in one flawlessly reproducing genetic blueprint - Rhea and Lewis inhabit a rarefied world. Putting their trust in science, they are blinkered against the fatal human element: sex and envy, treachery and error. Amber, however, desperate for a child and embarking on fertility treatment, must confront precisely this flawed physicality and a Faustian pact is forged. As the three are increasingly drawn into a transgressive relationship, the result is a series of betrayals that none, finally, will be able to forgive. This is both coolly analytical and erotically subversive in its exploration of passion and power intertwined and breeds a whole DNA sequence of cautionary tales: on weakness, temptation, ambition and the limits of science.
Notes: Originally published: London: Little, Brown, 2012.