River Divided

Two twins grow up in separate homes with an unknown genetic inheritance, and their lives eventually lead them into one of the most contested struggles of the present day. Each has taken a position on the opposite side of the fight over the Amazon, the largest rainforest still left on Earth. Their paths come close only once, for a brief moment, on opposite banks of a river. The story moves across four continents as the twins search for their own identities.

The novel is the first book by neuroscientist George Paxinos, who draws on his scientific expertise to test the limits of what science and the brain can explain. Its central question is whether people and nature can share the planet peacefully. Love, faith, forgiveness and freedom are presented as forces that might change individual lives and redirect humanity's future.

The book is set against a critical moment in the relationship between people and the environment. Its guiding question is the old debate over nature versus nurture: which of the two shapes a person more decisively?