Mendel's Dwarf - Tapa dura

Benedict Lambert, a brilliant geneticist and the great-great-great nephew of Gregor Mendel, pioneer of the study of genetics, dreams of eliminating the gene responsible for creating dwarfs like himself, while suddenly discovering the possibility of requited love

Lambert is an acclaimed British geneticist. His great-great-great uncle was Gregor Mendel, the reclusive Austrian monk who pioneered modern genetics. Ironically, Ben is the victim of one of nature's crueler jokes, a genetic mutation called achondroplasia. In other words, he is a dwarf. It has been his life's work to decode the gene that has made him how he is. Clever, sardonic, and vulnerable, he has another Jean in his life, Miss Jean Piercey, the woman with whom he hopes to find normal, reciprocated human love. But when rejection looms, Ben has to confront the ultimate temptation. Will he use science to seek revenge--and play God?
From the Trade Paperback edition.