A Perfect Life

In her third novel, Pollack (Breaking and Entering) delivers an absorbing genetic mystery that is couched in a complicated love story and a tale of survival. Jane Weiss, a researcher at MIT, is on a tireless hunt after the genetic marker for a neurodegenerative disease (a thinly veiled fictionalization of Huntington’s disease called Valentine’s chorea) that killed her mother and now looms over her own life and that of her sister. Fear and dread drive her relentless work so that there’s little time for romance—until she crosses paths with a man who also happens to be at risk for the disease. Love, sex, and marriage represent risks Jane isn’t willing to take, not knowing whether she’s going to succumb to Valentine’s chorea and pass the gene on to potential children. When she’s surprised by love—and certain discoveries in the lab—she must grapple with what it means to live and love fully in the face of risk and loss. If some lesser characters seem stock and certain story lines occasionally drag, the novel is redeemed by its clean prose and memorable protagonists. Pollack’s combination of gritty romance and medical suspense will have readers thinking about mortality and the bonds of family long after finishing. Agent: Jenni Ferrari-Adler, Union Literary. (May)