What if some of your cells were not your own? A captivating and thought-provoking exploration of the fascinating scientific phenomenon of microchimerism…

IN HIDDEN GUESTS, science journalist Lise Barnéoud explores the emerging science of microchimerism: the presence of genetically distinct cells that originated in another person. How did a mother give birth to the genetic children of her “sister” who was never born? How was a man identified by DNA testing as the culprit of a crime he didn’t commit? How might you be carrying cells from your relatives or even strangers?

“A fascinating book… Hidden guests, ably translated from French by Bronwyn Haslam, is more lyrical than narrative. [Ms Barnéoud] ruminates on how microchimerism might change the understanding of ourselves”, Sam Kean, Wall Street Journal

Weaving cutting-edge science, mysterious true stories, and interviews with experts at the forefront of the research, Barnéoud asks philosophical and probing questions about the implications of microchimerism for our understanding of immunity, biology, evolution, and notions of individual identity.

LISE BARNÉOUD is a freelance science journalist who regularly contributes to Mediapart, Science et Vie and Le Monde. She is the author of Immunisés? and Vaccins, petit guide par temps de Covid.

She was elected « French Science Writer of the year » in 2017 and won several awards (Fondation Varenne award for science journalism; Trophées Signatures Santé…).

OLIVIA CAMPBELL who has written the foreword is a journalist and the New York Times bestselling  author of Women in White Coats and Sisters in Science.

LEE NELSON, MD who has written the afterword published some of the first scientific studies on microchimerism in the 1990s. She heads the Nelson Lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, where her team investigates the health consequences of microchimerism.