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 Viking-Penguin (USA); HarperCollins (UK), Contact (Netherlands), Munhakdongne (South Korea), Spektrum (Germany), Misuzu Shobo (Japan), Gradiva (Portugal). |
 Mutants shortlisted for the AVENTIS PRIZE FOR SCIENCE BOOKS 2004 and awarded the GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK PRIZE 2004. Praise for Mutants! A fascinating science book which treats a potentially controversial or even macabre or ghoulish subject with great sensitivity and respect. [Leroi has a] tone of reverence for life in its complexity, and variety, and persistent coherence; a tone of cool-headed compassion, and an energetic and exacting need to know. "Armand Leroi is not yet a household name but he soon will be, if Mutants wins the following it deserves. The discovery of a distinguished scientist who can write with such flair and style is cause for rejoicing." "Read the book and you will be exposed to both a scientific world that no longer exists and to that of the twenty-first century. Read it and you will know a tiny part of what it is that has made you the person you are. Read it and enjoy words written carefully, elegantly and with sensibility. Read it and marvel." "Leroi shows us through his scientific explanations of developmental abnormalities, a different kind of beauty: innocence." "Instructive and enlightening, a brilliant admixture of curious historical anecdote and up-to-date science, written in excellent and often elegant prose." "Leroi lifts us from an instinctive horror at the bizarre to a more profound sense of wonder" "Beautifully written and always engrossing...often recalls Foucault at his most lurid and gothic." "Leroi writes about the body with Pateresque delicacy; he is an aesthete...an artist." "Poetic, philosophical, profound, witty and challenging." "For those who truly wish to know their origins without consulting a dry academic tome, this is a book to read." "[A] fascinating and immensely readable book." "Excellent: impressively well researched and illustrated and extremely well written." "Brilliantly (and most of all, humanely and very readably) lays bare the realities of our human development. Highly recommended." "By bringing modern genetic concepts to bear, we are led to understand the important fact that while serious mutants may have been harshly treated by the Fates, they have not been cursed by God for anything they have done. " " If your interests are in historical records of diverse abnormalities, in how genes produce such abnormalities and in how to integrate the two, then Mutants is an ideal read. " Trends in Ecology and Evolution "A courageous attempt to show that human developmental genetics is an important and fruitful field of study." American Journal of Human Genetics "A gracefully written and up-to-date account of the state of the field... well worth reading, not only for its fascinating tales of development, but also for its scrutiny of a vast, uncharted area of biology." "Bullet points from human genetics for you to shoot off." "Mutants satisfies genuine curiosity while transcending prurience, giving us a good look at the amazing prospect unfolding before us as we decode the human genome. It's Leroi's first book — and a marvelous accomplishment. May there be many more. " "A book that's as disturbing as it is enlightening, as unsettling as it is compelling..." "An enlightening book...may be downright scary for squeamish readers" "Leroi writes beautifully, charging his case histories with drama and pathos." "A gifted storyteller..." "An elegant study...a testament to the ingenuity of the organic life and the protean nature of what it means to be human." "Monsters Ink: In the genetic chamber of horrors, normality is skin-deep-and immortality will kill you" "Once, people with disfiguring or bizarre mutations were thought monstrous. Now they give vital clues to the dance of genes during the body's growth. Armand Leroi combines meticulous historicalresearch, brand-new genetic understanding and consummate skill with words to tell an absorbing tale."
Matt Ridley, Read this book, for the fascinating tales of genetic variation and the lives of those affected. New England Journal of Medicine Leroi's book is clever and greatly entertaining, but not, in the end, entirely satisfying. London Review of Books "In Mutants, the combination of historical record with the latest in developmental biology and genetics marvelously puts across science from a human perspective. Anomaly is one way to understand the 'normal', and mutants inform us of the delicacy and wonder of growth and development. Leroi writes with great grace."
Richard Fortey FRS, "Mutants is much more than a description of the many damaged or unusual forms of human beings that live now and have existed in the past. It is a fun read, being a spicy mix of history, developmental biology and genetics that does the trick of being both entertaining and educational."
Peter Lawrence FRS, "Mutants does a biologist's heart good. It was with envy that I read how modern biology with all its genes is now illuminating the secrets of the old curiosity cabinets without depriving them of any of their romance. Popular science at its best."
Midas Dekkers, |