In this stunning work of contemporary fiction, Chevalier has succeeded in illuminating one of the unspeakable tragedies of our age: the exploitation of illness. Rendering the depravity and misfeasance of our modern-day temples of medicine with scholarly aplomb, the gripping narrative in "Sarcophagus" chronicles the journey of an inspired physician and an intrepid biophysicist as they strive against all odds to develop the world's first effective targeted, injectable gene delivery system-the coveted holy grail of genetic medicine.

It is a time in history when terminal cancer patients...