'A captivating, intelligent and deeply affecting exploration of science, literature and ideas', Tom McCarthy, author of Man Booker shortlisted Satin Island and C BOOK OF THE YEAR 2015: 'Brave, intelligent and gloriously unsettling', Book Smoke 'An engaging novel, brimming with ideas... To say I enjoyed The Human Script would be an understatement.' BookemStevo London in the spring of 2000: Chris Putnam, a young scientist working on the Human Genome Project, is grieving for the end of his first relationship and for the loss of his deeply religious and estranged father. Then Chris falls in love and his brother goes missing. Events take Chris on a journey from research labs via decadent art-scene parties and London's Theatreland to the stark loneliness of a psychiatric hospital and ultimately to a desperate decision. What Chris discovers about himself forces him to address his beliefs, his nature and even reality itself. In The Human Script science, philosophy, literary theory and religion intertwine in a poignant and tragic love story that asked the question: What is it to be human? A profound masterpiece that lay hidden under the author's bed for more than a decade, readers of Tom McCarthy and David Mitchell will love this exciting debut that explores nature and nurture, faith and knowledge, freedom and fate, identity and reality and the nature of fiction itself.
'A captivating, intelligent and deeply affecting exploration of science, literature and ideas', Tom McCarthy, author of Man Booker shortlisted Satin Island and C BOOK OF THE YEAR 2015: 'Brave, intelligent and gloriously unsettling', Book Smoke 'An engaging novel, brimming with ideas... To say I enjoyed The Human Script would be an understatement.' BookemStevo London in the spring of 2000: Chris Putnam, a young scientist working on the Human Genome Project, is grieving for the end of his first relationship and for the loss of his deeply religious and estranged father. Then Chris falls in love and his brother goes missing. Events take Chris on a journey from research labs via decadent art-scene parties and London's Theatreland to the stark loneliness of a psychiatric hospital and ultimately to a desperate decision. What Chris discovers about himself forces him to address his beliefs, his nature and even reality itself. In The Human Script science, philosophy, literary theory and religion intertwine in a poignant and tragic love story that asked the question: What is it to be human? A profound masterpiece that lay hidden under the author's bed for more than a decade, readers of Tom McCarthy and David Mitchell will love this exciting debut that explores nature and nurture, faith and knowledge, freedom and fate, identity and reality and the nature of fiction itself.
After publishing a series of award-winning guidebooks about universities and student life, Johnny turned to fiction and became a student at the world-famous MA course in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where he was taught by, among others, Sir Andrew Motion, Lorna Sage and W.G. Sebald. He also mixed with some of the great names in contemporary fiction: Sir Malcolm Bradbury, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Doris Lessing, Hanif Kureishi, Ali Smith, Louis de Bernières and many others. While at UEA, Johnny wrote the first draft of his debut novel The Human Script. He was immediately snapped up by a top London literary agent, but it was another 12 years before the book was published by independent imprint Red Button. Apart from his work as a writer, Johnny is well known as an expert on higher education and careers. He appears regularly on TV and radio discussing education issues and runs a programme of talks in schools. He is also said to have discovered a new species of spider and once had a painting shown in the gallery of the BBC programme Take Hart, aged 10. Johnny lives in London.
![]() |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
![]() |