He’s an American biologist working in England to scotch inherited diseases at source and extend youthfulness. She’s a linguist who’s lived in the Middle East and has literary ambitions. They meet by chance, can’t keep their hands off each other, but in one crucial respect are at loggerheads. This single disagreement nearly destroys their mutually satisfying relationship. Can sexual pleasure never be pure? Must there always be some bitterness sabotaging the bliss? Charlie Venn thinks it’s sneaky, treacherous, how disgruntlement lies concealed in the very heart of his happiness. His jealousy of Sophie Gresham’s erotic vibes blinds him to her loyalty and gives him bad dreams – because she isn’t sold on the wisdom of his genetic-enhancement work.

Sensuous, gritty and funny, Ambiguous Embrace shows the emotional life of a scientist at the cutting edge of molecular medicine. A serious man manipulating bits of the human genome at his lab in Cambridge, yet head over heels for a budding novelist – this book is fizzy, far-reaching, 21st-century stuff based on sound research.

“While researching AIDS: The Deadly Epidemic, I met and had talks with some of the world’s leading virologists and immunologists. It became clear that research scientists have private lives too – they have domestic pressures, and professional rivals whom they strive to beat to sources of funding, and to new discoveries. I was also inspired by certain events in the history of science, and the suddenness of the digital revolution. Given the research under way in genetics labs around the world, it occurred to me that we were already entering a paradigm shift in human nature. My book had to be sexy, intellectually lively, and beautifully written to show my respect,” says Enver Carim.