Book recommendation: A River Divided by Prof. George Paxinos

I’m so overwhelmed with this book that I can’t help recommending it.

I just finished the Greek translation but you can easily purchase the original (english) version called #ARiverDivided.

This is LITERALLY a modern, ancient-greek-like tragedy, managing to shake one’s priorities while unveiling an interconnection between ethics, bioethics, religion, faith, science, environmental awareness and pure human love in a story plot that could have easily slided down to the level of a soap opera if written by someone lesser than Professor George Paxinos .

At first, and knowing Paxinos’ monumental contribution to #neuroscience, I thought that the book was doomed to lack any touch of literature quality. So, the first surprise was the author’s talent to poise between rationalism and lyrism. The second surprise came when I realized that the author had majestically grown and evolved all his characters to fit into a captivating, eco-fiction novel that was constantly provoking my priorities, my very conception of how a man’s identity, politics, climate change, and God may be interacting differently each time his whereabouts and social origin changes.

Here’s a summary of the plot:

A male’s human skeleton (plot twist No1) is accidentally discovered in Israel by Evelyn, a geneticist, passionate about archaeology. DNA from the well-preserved brain is then cloned to bring twins into the world.

Accidentally, the embryo is divided into two, producing two growing embryos. Evelyn will carry one. Christopher will grow up in Sydney, with Evelyn and Michael, in a privileged, prosperous environment, with great studies, and lots of opportunities.

The second child, Jose, who is born by surrogacy, is never handed to Evelyn and ends up growing up in the slums of Buenos Aires from a woman called Maria without any financial resources. His mentor, Alberto, an activist, neuroscientist & environmentalist will guide him to fight against sustainability and birth control (plot twist No2).

The twins, unaware of each other’s existence will live completely different lives and will eventually meet coincidentally having a significant falling-out over an Amazon rainforest, the árvore Velha. José defends it while Christopher works for the company that operates the construction of a hydroelectric dam for the production of renewable energy.

Lorena, the medical student, aligned with Jose’s ideals, who was imprisoned and tortured by the Argentine junta, will become the ‘’magic liaison’’ between the two brothers and will spur all characters into embracing their ‘’catharsis’’ …. (plot twist No 3; no spoilers ??)

Ι have been thinking about this book for the last few days. It made me revisit the whole easy-to-digest, eco-friendly culture that is building up around us often only as the politically correct thing to do.

Jose and Michael's contracting lives, Evelyn’s decisions, and Lorena’s passion made me look around (and up to be honest) to try to quantify my own environmental impact. But not with a reprimanding intention. Paxinos is not into a blame-game. I think he is trying to induce rational thinking, not guilt, or fear. The ending is genuinely inspiring and optimistic, and the characters remain palpable, tangible till the end. There is no good cop-bad cop mentality in this reading. Just a constant, internal fight to find one’s place in the world, embrace diversity, and realize that ‘’God’’ is in us in a materialistic sense. And although the fight against injustice is predominant, there is a background, vivid discussion about the construction of a sustainable world that will enable an honest relationship with the environment but more than that will stimulate a betterment, or rather a rectification of our relationship with God, Science, and Culture that stands between and unites them all.

Let me know what you think when you read it ??

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