Intuition

In a cancer research lab, a young scientist thinks he might have found a cure for cancer. But his colleague, who just happens to be his ex-girlfriend, is convinced there are flaws in his work.

I loved the way this novel evokes the reality of scientists’ lab work and their struggles to try and determine what is ‘really’ going on. Too often, science is presented in the media as a straightforward yes-no/right-wrong pursuit, whereas in reality, it’s messy and full of dead ends. This novel portrays scientists as human beings who bring their own passions and prejudices into the lab,… show more.

Allegra Goodman gets into people’s heads in a way that only a novelist can. In Intuition, the people are scientists, and her portrayal of day-to-day research is extraordinarily realistic. There is the monotony—sometimes many years of rote production-line labor, far from the realm of big ideas or breathtaking breakthroughs—but especially, in this book, the uncertainty.

The plot hinges on an experiment that may be a major discovery—or maybe an illusion. The resulting conflicts, both personal and political, throw the central characters’ lives into absorbing chaos.