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Original Sin

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What to expect

As one of the world's leading scientists examining how our DNA shapes differences in temperament, temptation and behaviour, Harden has seen first-hand how we - in public and in our most private relationships - continue to struggle with the ancient tensions between nature and nurture, freedom and constraint, the desire to punish and the longing to forgive.

In Original Sin, she weaves together insights from her own experience as a daughter, mother, wife and scientist with cutting-edge research in genetics and psychology to grapple with some of the most important questions in modern life: How do we take responsibility for the people we become, knowing how we are shaped by both biology and experience? How should we respond when people hurt each other - or themselves? And has science made guilt obsolete?

Navigating the psychological and biological terrain of addiction, antisocial behaviour and violence, Harden confronts the discomforting ways science unsettles our understanding of wrongdoing and choice. In doing so she asks us not to absolve, but to reckon differently with notions of fairness and blame. A revelatory inquiry into the uneasy space where human behaviour meets inherited biology, Original Sin challenges us to imagine a more humane vision of accountability - for ourselves and for one another.

Critics Review

A tour de force. Original Sin is a thoughtful and thought-provoking book that invites us to go deep into questions about why people do terrible things and how we should treat them afterwards. Harden's discussion is deepened by her personal reflections on her own responses to hurt and cruelty - a rare mixture, showing how the scientific and the personal perspective combine in a rich complementarity. I loved this book
GWEN ADSHEAD, author of THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
An extraordinary book, the very best of science writing, because it is not just about science, but is memoir, history, bleeding-edge genetics and a completely original take on original sin. Thrilling, entertaining, provocative, brilliant
ADAM RUTHERFORD, author of A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVERYONE WHO EVER LIVED
What makes Original Sin so readable apart from damned good writing is a sincere and palpable search for the safety of a god in what we're beginning to know. It's not only part of the solution to a human future but a blind date with the meaning of life. Anyone with a beating heart and a hungry mind should eat this up
DBC PIERRE, author of VERNON GOD LITTLE
A powerful read that stops you dead in your tracks and forces you to think very deeply
SUE BLACK, author of ALL THAT REMAINS
Regardless of the side you take in the nature vs nurture debate, Kathryn Paige Harden's Original Sin offers an eye-opening perspective on possible genetic links to antisocial behaviour. Those who can accept that there is nothing inherently amoral about having an unconventional experience of emotion will see the potential life-changing and positive impact this understanding can have on stigmatised and marginalised antisocial youth
PATRIC GAGNE, author of SOCIOPATH
Unique, expansive and illuminating - a mix of religion and genetics that interweaves intensely personal storytelling with rigidly objective science to explore big questions about the bad things we have the capacity to do
JOHN HIGGS, author of WILLIAM BLAKE VS THE WORLD
Even if you have no interest in the concept of sin, this is a compelling read. Harden's bottom line is that we subjective beings are morally responsible for our actions (sorry), despite the fact that we also tick along deterministically. This emotionally startling and intellectually erudite book explains why
MARK SOLMS, neuroscientist, psychoanalyst and author of THE ONLY CURE
Wonderful. Popular science these days, in its understandable desire to attract readers, can feel overly simplistic. But Harden's fascinating personal revelations never obscure the fact that what she has written is an undeniably intellectual and moral book. We need more of this kind of writing, and I absolutely loved it
GABRIEL WESTON, author of ALIVE
A brave, open-hearted examination of how our glitchy brains make sense of what our imperfect bodies do
CHARLES FERNYHOUGH, author of THE VOICES WITHIN
This perspective-shattering exploration of how genetics complicate our ideas about blame, punishment and moral responsibility is like no other science book I have ever read
THE BOOKSELLER, 10 Titles Not to Miss in April

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