The Gene: An Intimate History

Veteran voice actor Boutsikaris’s talents are on full display in the audio edition of the latest from oncologist and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Mukherjee. He uses vocal flexibility to stress phrases, words, and even syllables to illuminate the grand tale of how scientists have come to understand the role genes play in human development, behavior, and physiology. Boutsikaris has such control of grammatical structure that every sentence, no matter the length, is clear, and he includes frequent transitional pauses that help the listener retain focus all the way through Mukherjee’s complex but fascinating narrative, chronicling breakthroughs in the quest to understand human heredity, from the work of Darwin and Mendel to current research in the field of genetics. [em]A Scribner hardcover. (May) [/em]