The Song of the Cell: The Story of Life

A profound, human history of biology’s most vital idea.

From the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies comes a sweeping exploration of the cell – the building block of all living things. In The Song of the Cell, Siddhartha Mukherjee traces how centuries of scientific endeavour and discovery, from early microscopes to stem-cell therapy, have transformed medicine and our understanding of what it means to be alive.

Woven through this history are stories of patients, scientists, and personal insight. As Mukherjee shows, the cell’s music is the song of life itself – complex, adaptive, and full of wonder. Essential reading for fans of popular science and the history of medicine.

Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2023

A NEW YORK TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, ECONOMIST, MAIL ON SUNDAY and GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR

‘Will leave you in awe’ Guardian

‘Profound… as big a topic as life itself’ The Times