The Fiction Lab January 12, 2009

Jennifer Rohn of Lablit.com presides over our monthly book club dedicated to great fiction books that feature science at their heart. Check this website for each month's selection, read the book beforehand and then drop into the Ri's cafe to discuss it with other fiction lovers.

Admission is free and there is no need to book tickets in advance.
January's book

This month's book is 'This Thing of Darkness' by Harry Thompson. In 2009 the world will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, so what better way for the Fiction Lab to pay tribute than to kick off the year with a novel about the voyage of the Beagle? 'This Thing of Darkness', which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2005, is an epic sea-faring tale following Robert Fitzroy, the the Beagle's captain, and his famous passenger. The novel has been described as combining adventure, emotion, ideas, humour and tragedy as well as illuminating the history of the 19th century. Fitzroy, the Christian Tory aristocrat, believed in the sanctity of the individual, but his beliefs destroyed his career and he committed suicide. Darwin, the liberal minor cleric doubts the truth of the Bible and develops his theory of evolution which is brutal and unforgiving in human terms. The two friends became bitter enemies as Darwin destroyed everything Fitzroy stood for.

Official Website: http://www.rigb.org/contentControl?action=displayContent&id=2440