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.  

Author: John W. Farrell
Paperback: 238 pages, 2026
ISBN: 9781972482070

JOHN W. FARRELL is an author and journalist working in Boston. His previous books include The Clock and the Camshaft: And Other Medieval Inventions We Still Can’t Live Without as well as The Day Without Yesterday: Lemaître, Einstein, and the Birth of Modern Cosmology. A graduate of Harvard College with a B.A. in English and American Literature, Farrell has written about science and history for The Wall Street Journal, Aeon, Commonweal, New Scientist, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, Salon, National Review, and Nautilus. His fiction has appeared in Dappled Things and DoubleThink, and his poetry in U.S. Catholic and Penwood Review.

“With deep insight and intelligence, An Uncommon Descent reveals the hard work and blind leaps of imagination, empathy, and faith that lie at the true heart of science. A memorable debut.“ —Margot Singer, author of Underground Fugue

“An Uncommon Descent provides a different take on what it means to be an original thinker. In sensitive, vivid prose, John W. Farrell depicts a brilliant woman’s lonely trek to scientific greatness….” —John Oakes, author of The Fast: The History, Science, Philosophy, and Promise of Doing Without

“An Uncommon Descent is a captivating novel that puts the reader smack dab in the middle of a fascinating and sometimes dangerous scientific quest.  —Scot Lehigh, former Boston Globe columnist and author of Just East of Nowhere