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The DNA of You and Me: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Andrea Rothman (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 98 ratings

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“Refreshing.... Asks urgent questions about female ambition. Fans of Lab Girl have found a worthy successor.”—Real Simple

A powerful debut novel—a wonderfully engaging infusion of Lab Girl, The Assistants, and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine—that pits the ambition of scientific discovery against the siren call of love.

Emily Apell arrives in Justin McKinnon’s renowned research lab with the single-minded goal of making a breakthrough discovery. But a colleague in the lab, Aeden Doherty, has been working on a similar topic, and his findings threaten to compete with her research.

To Emily’s surprise, her rational mind is unsettled by Aeden, and when they end up working together their animosity turns to physical passion, followed by love. Emily eventually allows herself to envision a future with Aeden, but when he decides to leave the lab it becomes clear to her that she must make a choice. It is only years later, when she is about to receive a prestigious award for the work they did together, that Emily is able to unravel everything that happened between them.

A sharp, relevant novel that speaks to the ambitions and desires of modern women, The DNA of You and Me explores the evergreen question of career versus family, the irrational sensibility of love, and whether one can be a loner without a diagnostic label.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Powerful...a surprisingly literary love story set against the clinical, sterile, and cutthroat environment of an academic research lab.” — Library Journal (starred review)

“This sharp debut...sets a bittersweet love story within the cut-throat world of academic research, a great pairing [Rothman] explores with heart, smarts, and a lot of furtive sex... It’s Rothman’s aching study of loneliness, heartbreak and forgiveness that resonate.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A debut novel by a scientist that makes the lab feel like a real place....The pleasure of this novel lies in Rothman’s sincere, straightforward, unpretentious prose wracked with the loneliness of young love.” — Kirkus Reviews

“The DNA of You and Me is a gorgeous novel exploring the intersection of love and science.” — Kimmery Martin, author of The Queen of Hearts

“The DNA of You and Me is a delightful journey through experiments—both in science and in love. I loved following Emily’s quest to find the perfect strand of DNA, and the perfect boyfriend. You can’t help but root for her!” — Miriam Parker, author of The Shortest Way Home

“Refreshing...Asks urgent questions about female ambition. Fans of Lab Girl have found a worthy successor.” — Real Simple

“Andrea Rothman’s debut novel is both a fine and necessary accomplishment. Emily is memorable in this tale of the anguish and splendor of a thoroughly modern woman. We look forward to more from this original and courageous writer.” — Xu Xi, author of That Man in Our Lives and Habit of a Foreign Sky

“Rothman’s debut novel is a fierce and eloquent exploration of what it is to be a woman working in STEM - a scientist in the cut-throat world of cutting-edge research and academia....This one’s a powerful literary page-turner.” — Leah Kaminsky, author of The Waiting Room

From the Back Cover

“I’m asking you to choose me, Emily. That’s what I’m asking you to do, to choose us.”

How does smell work? Specifically, how do olfactory sensory neurons reach their targets in the brain, where smell is processed? Justin McKinnon has hired Emily Apell to study that question. What Justin hasn’t told Emily is that two other scientists in the lab, Aeden and Allegra, are working on a very similar topic, and their findings may compete with her research.

Emily was born focused and driven. She’s always been more comfortable staring down the barrel of a microscope than making small talk with strangers. Competition doesn’t scare her. Her special place is the lab, where she analyzes DNA sequences, looking for new genes that might be involved in guiding olfactory neurons to their targets.

To Emily’s great surprise, her rational mind is unsettled by Aeden. As they shift from competitors to colleagues, and then to something more, Emily allows herself to see a future in which she doesn’t end up alone. But when Aeden decides to leave the lab, it becomes clear to Emily that she must make a choice: follow her research or follow her heart.

A sharp, relevant novel that speaks to the ambitions and desires of modern women, The DNA of You and Me explores the evergreen question of career versus family, the irrational sensibility of love, and whether one can be a loner without a diagnostic label.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0796THJX6
Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow; Reprint edition (March 12, 2019)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 12, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1726 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 255 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #755,719 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,337 in Women's New Adult & College Fiction
- #2,715 in Genetic Engineering Science Fiction eBooks
- #2,915 in Romance Literary Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.1 98 ratings

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Andrea Rothman

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Andrea Rothman was born in New York and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. Her debut novel THE DNA OF YOU AND ME was published by HarperCollins in March of 2019. The novel has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, and was shortlisted for the 21st International Latino Book Awards in the category of most popular fiction in English.

Prior to becoming a fiction writer, Rothman was a research scientist at the Rockefeller University in New York, where she studied the sense of smell. She holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and was a reader and a fiction editor for the VCFA journal of the arts-Hunger Mountain. To learn more about Andrea Rothman visit her at www.andrearothman.com.

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frequentshoppers

Behind the scenes and believable

Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2023

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I loved that this book offered a glimpse into the world of scientific discovery - how it can be competitive and exciting but how it can also be tedious and lonely. The main character is driven to succeed but is depicted in a way that rings true. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing and felt like the plot unfolded naturally. It was ultimately a love story - not just the love between people but also the love of that one moment of scientific discovery.

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2019

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If you have ever worked in a basic science lab you might appreciate this book but its story, style, development etc are not very well done and probably would only hold the attention of a young person who had such experience and isn't widely read.

2 people found this helpful

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Heather Frimmer

Great story of a women in science

Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2019

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This book had me at "Hello." I've always had a soft spot for books about women in science. Favorites of the past few years include State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, Lab Girl by Hope Jahren and When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon. Also, this novel takes place at a fictional research university on the upper east side of Manhattan which is clearly Rockefeller University. Many of my med school classmates also worked toward their doctorates at this very institution. The exploration of the cutthroat world of research science harkened back to stories my friends shared from their grueling days in the lab. Even the places mentioned—Nectar diner, China Fun, The Metropolitan Museum of Art—brought me right back to my med school days. Emily Apell, the post doc scientist at the center of the story, is an intriguing character: smart, independent and single minded. When faced with a choice between climbing the steep ladder of academia and the only man she's ever loved, she makes the only choice she feels comfortable with. Told from the vantage point of twelve years later as she is about to accept a prestigious scientific award, Emily wonders if she made the right decision and whether there's any way to repair the damage that was done so long ago.

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2019

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I loved this page-turner so much that I finished it in one day! Emily joins a new research lab where she is investigating the neurobiology of smell. Unhappily, she learns that two others are also working on the same topic. Their work fails while hers proves promising. Complicating her life is the fact that Emily is attracted to the man from the other team, who now works with her. She has always avoided relationships, feeling more at home in the lab, but now she is faced with making decisions for career or for love. I enjoyed the science in the story, which was just enough to add authenticity but not so much that I was overwhelmed. Good character development and descriptive writing added to my enjoyment.

3 people found this helpful

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Eleonora Yuabov

To be or not to be a woman scientist 🤩

Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2022

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Our book club picked Andrea's book for reading and discussion.
Author shares a life of a woman passionate about science whonis on the cusp of winning Nobel prize.
This book has complex characters that mature throughout the book and we had an amazing discussion about characters, childhood trauma, women in science, career vs family choices, betrayal, forgiveness and much more. We have contacted Andrea and asked her to come to our book club meeting to discuss her book with us - it was an amazing experience!

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2019

I did like this book even if I didn't love it. This was a book that was very different than I thought it would be. I thought that this was a romance. It was labeled romance, the book's description sounds romantic, and even the title sounds like a romance novel. But it didn't feel like a romance. Yes, there is a relationship in the book but not one that I could get excited about. I still found this book to be very readable and did enjoy the experience.

This book was really heavy on the science which I liked. It might have been a little too detailed at times but I like that kind of thing so it worked for me. I found the research that Emily and Aeden were doing really interesting and was eager to see how their experiments would turn out.

I had some trouble with Emily and Aeden's relationship. They had no chemistry. None at all. I felt no passion between them. I also don't think that this relationship was really healthy. Things started between them with some rather odd sexual encounters. I felt like Emily was being taken advantage of more than anything, especially since one of the encounters were less than consensual. When I read a romance, I need a couple that I can cheer towards their happily ever after but with this pair, I felt that they really shouldn't be with each other.

This book is told from Emily's point of view and I did find her to be a really interesting character. She was raised by her father in a lab so it was really no surprise that she felt at home in a lab. She is awkward in social situations and would really rather focus on work. While it is not confirmed, the story hints that Emily might be on the spectrum. I really did want to see good things come for Emily.

I did enjoy this book even if I had some issues with it. I found this to be a very quick read and I am glad that I picked it up. I wouldn't hesitate to read more from this author in the future.

I received a review copy of this book from William Morrow.

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Amazon Customer

A rewarding debut novel

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2019

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I was hoping for a romantic novel with science as a backdrop and found this to be a rewarding read. The backdrop of competitive genetic science in New York City was the perfect setting to expose the limitations of romance in a cut throat world. The novel is written well, following a story arc that bends back on itself perfectly. I highly recommend this debut novel and look forward to Andrea Rothman’s next work.

2 people found this helpful

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MD

A must-read novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 20, 2020

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The DNA of You and Me is such a powerful novel, and it's a romance like none other that I've read. And for that, I really appreciated it.

Let's start with the characters:

Emily is just so real. She's flawed, has a complex about being alone all her life, and is career-orientated. She's a STEM scientist and she's so goal-driven. I loved that. She just felt real. I could imagine walking into her lab and meeting her.

Aeden, her love interest, is... well. He came across as quietly arrogant and selfish, nearly always putting his own wants before those of others--and that just made him so realistic. There were also some really tender moments involving him too though. He's complex, and while most of the time when reading I couldn't decide if I liked him, I understood him.

The romance itself, I just adored. So I'm not a HUGE fan of romance or anything. I much prefer the romance to be secondary to the story, and here it was, yet it was also cleverly woven into the plot. The main focus on the book is Emily trying to achieve her goal as she works with mice to do with a sense of smell. Okay, so I have not worded that at all well. It's a lot more complicated than that, and there is so much science in the book. Yet even for a reader like me who has limited scientific knowledge, it's manageable. So Emily is hard at work in her new lab, and straight away we're introduced to Aeden. At first he's a competing postdoc student, but then they work together. And the closer Emily gets to Aeden, the more we understand him, even if we don't like him that much.

The way the romance started did not seem at all romantic--but it was believable. And from there on, it was possible to see Emily's feelings for him growing, and then his for her too. Yet I was never sure whether I was completely rooting for Emily and Aeden as a couple. I had my doubts because of his personality.

And the ending--[spoilers in this paragraph!]. Aeden is such an arrogant ****! Seriously, I'm so glad Emily didn't take him back. She stuck true to her morals, and I really admired her strength for that. She is a great role model. So I'm really glad that it ended how it did. It felt realistic, and though there's no HEA for Emily and Aeden, I did feel that Emily was happier and truer to herself on her own--and possibly with John? I really liked how John cropped back up here in a non-intrusive way.

The writing itself is beautiful. While it's clear the author has a scientific background, and plenty of science is effortlessly incorporated into the story at an approachable level for non-scientists without it seeming like it's being dumbed down, the language is simply beautiful.

You've also got two different timelines going on, and the only other times I've ever really seen this done this well is in memoir. And this definitely contributed to my love for these characters--because the book just seemed so realistic. I could meet Emily and Aeden and Justin. The events that happened really could happen. It's so believable, and a couple of times I had to check that I wasn't in fact reading memoir. That's how good the writing is, because I was so immersed in the story that it felt extremely believable.

My favourite quote has to be this one: "My father once said to me, shortly before he died, that a discovery is nothing but a moment. The moment when a truth, otherwise obscured, reveals itself, and your eyes are the only pair of eyes in the world to see it, and your mind the only mind to comprehend the truth and certainty of what you see. The moment is all you're left with, because that is all you will ever care to remember."

I just love the message in that. And I'm still thinking about it now.

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