The Crooked Mirror of Life

Few illnesses or conditions of the human body are surrounded by as many myths and speculations as cancer. At the same time, many myths are based on echoes of real scientific theories—distorted beyond recognition by “oral folk creativity” in gossip and retellings.

Maria Kondratova, a molecular biologist working at the Institut Curie in Paris, set herself the task of separating the grain from the chaff and providing an accessible yet genuinely scientific understanding of the nature of cancer diseases and modern approaches to diagnosis and treatment. Molecular oncology is an impressive example of how fundamental knowledge about genome structure and systems of cellular regulation is turned into drugs and diagnostic methods that save thousands of lives. And this audiobook, despite the obvious drama of its subject, is not really about illness and death—it is about life—its complexity, fragility, and beauty.