- Monday 18 August 2008
Please note the date of this event has changed.
7.00pm start
Scientific fiction for the height of summer. Jennifer Rohn of Lablit.com presides over a monthly book club dedicated to great fiction books that feature science at their heart. Check this website for each month's selection, read the book beforehand and then drop into the RI to discuss it with other fiction lovers.
August's book
This month's book selection is Mendel's Dwarf by Simon Mawer:
Dr Benedict Lambert is Gregor Mendel's great-great-great nephew, a brilliant geneticist, and also, ironically, a dwarf. The target of his research is the single gene that caused him. Mawer's novel, though, isn't only about science, but also about people - and the suffering, acerbic, intelligent, thoughtful Lambert comes nothing if not alive. What is life like for a dwarf, and where is love to be found? Alternate chapters tell the century-old story of the stoic and celibate Mendel and the now-story of the equally stoic Lambert - including his love for charmingly mousy librarian Jean Piercey and the remarkable direction this love travels in: including not only pregnancy but a breath-stopping mystery that's unsolved (if then) until the end.
Admission is free and there is no need to book.