The Hormone Factory

Scientific progress and human decency butt heads in this debut novel, which was inspired by the real-life founder of Organon, the first pharmaceutical company to make and market birth control pills and testosterone replacement therapy. A Dutch meat company executive, Mordechai de Paauw built a pharmaceutical empire amid the chaos of Hitler's rise to power, in the process betraying his partner, his twin brother, his wife, and the young women who worked in his factory, whom he exploited sexually. Mordechai's only punishment is a helpless old age and the knowledge that his son will pay for his own crimes. What's most exciting about this novel is its portrait of unregulated entrepreneurial science, with a ruthless CEO who thinks little of testing his company's creations on vulnerable women and even his own brother, with disastrous consequences. Less interesting is Mordechai himself, since the conscience he finally develops is too little too late; it's impossible to care about him.