Original Sin

Reviews / Votes

This is a serious and knotty book... but it can be beautiful. Harden draws movingly on autobiographical material... Ultimately, this is a well-informed attack on an American style of justice that relies on notions of sin and punishment. Harden acknowledges that retribution feels good - we are human. She wants everyone to be accountable for their actions, whatever their genetics. But she calls for rational measures aimed at reducing offending, and for restorative justice over vengeance. For Norway, not Texas. For compassion, not cruelty... A darkly glittering book. -- James McConnachie * THE TIMES * A book littered with fascinating scientific findings... Harden is exceptionally skilled at interweaving the personal and the scientific. She writes about her own life experiences - leaving the church, becoming estranged from her parents, the challenges of early motherhood - with rare, dangerous honesty... [A] complex, thought-provoking book. -- Sophie McBain * GUARDIAN, Book of the Day * 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 A daring, complex, sometimes confounding and ultimately powerful tapestry of a book . . . [moves] with propulsive momentum and elegant logic from dog-training and child-rearing to corporal punishment, mass incarceration and, ultimately, hope for the future * NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW * 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 Original Sin is an ambitious, compact and often moving contribution to the literature at the intersection of genetics and ethics. It is magnificent to have an established scientist such as Harden address social, political, religious and deeply personal issues in the context of scientific work meant for public consumption. The book should serve as a nucleation point for broad, intense and enlightening discussion -- Michael A. Goldman * SCIENCE * A very powerful read. -- Bryan Appleyard * THE SPECTATOR * 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 -- Caroline Sanderson * THE BOOKSELLER, 10 Titles Not to Miss in April *