Original Sin: The Genetics of Vice, the Problem of Blame and the Future of Forgiveness

About the book

'Beautiful . . . a darkly glittering book' THE TIMES

'Fascinating scientific findings . . . Harden writes with rare, dangerous honesty' GUARDIAN, Book of the Day

'Thrilling, entertaining, provocative, brilliant' ADAM RUTHERFORD

'Magnificent' SCIENCE

An intellectually daring and deeply intimate exploration of how genetics complicate our ideas about blame, punishment and moral responsibility.

In Original Sin, world-leading geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden 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 discomfiting 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.

'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 . . . I loved this book' GWEN ADSHEAD