There’s nothing like doing science with your back against the wall. A rising star in her field, Nora Dunnahaldey is trying to get back on her feet after the death of her husband and the violent backlash surrounding her public takedown of a chauvinistic colleague on social media. With her west coast campus in an uproar, Nora has been forced to take a leave of absence until the trolling and death threats simmer down. She and her team land in the White Mountains of New Hampshire to find a unique species of fish whose genomics could demonstrate a key aspect of Darwinian evolution. When they move into a historic house, Nora can’t be sure the outwardly friendly neighbors—like Bill Nilian, a part-time bookseller—aren’t actually playing an ominous game on the newcomers. When Nora’s project stalls at a scientific impasse and her team’s very safety is threatened, she must take on the rest of the experiment alone.

A novel about science, love, and redemption, An Uncommon Descent shows how the natural world can help us learn what it is to be human.