JULIA’S GIFT by Nina Munteanu

Julia's Gift is the story of Claire, a scientist that is about to be awarded the Nobel Prize for working on “photosynthetic symbionts in human mitochondria.”

Claire recounts the events that allowed for her work to be completed. She is the narrator of the story looking back at the death of her parents, her sister Julia, and her brother Simon.

The event of the story is in two separate times. The first, which sandwiches the meat of the story, is Claire receiving the Novel Prize. The meat of the story takes place in a realized flashback where Claire and her siblings have gone off the farm. Their parents had warned them not to, there could be “stray revolutionaries” lurking in the woods. Little did her parents know that by running of to play in the woods would save their children’s lives.

This flash back seems like the musings of someone who has survivor’s guilt. Claire recounts this horrid event with love. She attributes this single moment a turning point for her, and event that has lead to present moment of the prize.

However, the beauty of the story is in the future science that Munteanu has created. The terminology and applications that are mentioned seem so possible that it is a wonder why they are not real. However, in this we also find out why the family is in hiding. Claire’s father is known as Doctor Frankenstein. He created technology that was meant to improve the life of all humanity, except that instead it wiped out the world’s crop of wheat.

This is a really excellent story that you can read here: Julia's Gift.

Munteanu, Nina. Julia's Gift. The Alien Next Door.

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