The worldwide bestseller and author of Birdsong joins geneticist Adam Rutherford for a profound examination of what it means to be human.

Both a literary adept who effortlessly dissects the human condition and a master storyteller able to transport us to the horrors of battle of the Somme or a gunfight with James Bond, into a Victorian asylum, or across London on the cusp of financial Armageddon, Sebastian Faulks is one of the finest living British novelists.

Now the award-winning author of nineteen wildly acclaimed novels including A Week in December, Charlotte Gray and Human Traces joins How To Academy to explore the brave new worlds of genetic engineering, big tech, and the boundaries of ethics. In conversation with Adam Rutherford, Sebastian will reveal The Seventh Son, a bravura new novel asking the question: just because you can do something, does it mean you should?

When a young American academic Talissa Adam offers to carry another woman’s child, she has no idea of the life-changing consequences. Behind the doors of the Parn Institute, a billionaire entrepreneur plans to stretch the boundaries of ethics as never before. Through a series of IVF treatments, which they hope to keep secret, they propose an experiment that will upend the human race as we know it.

Seth, the baby, is delivered to hopeful parents Mary and Alaric, but when his differences start to mark him out from his peers, he begins to attract unwanted attention.

Sweeping between New York, London, and the Scottish Highlands, this is an extraordinary novel about unrequited love and unearned power.

This event is presented in partnership with Penguin.