The Leap Year Gene of Kit Mckinley

An inspired, sweeping, historical epic tracing the remarkable life story of a baby girl born on leap year day who grows one year older every four years. The Leap Year Gene imagines the fascinating life of Kit McKinley from WWI up to the present day, told through the voices of Kit and her family members, whose lives are forever altered by her secret. February 29, 1916: After an unusually long pregnancy, Lillian McKinley, whose husband...
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An inspired, sweeping, historical epic tracing the remarkable life story of a baby girl born on leap year day who

grows one year older every four years. The Leap Year Gene imagines the fascinating life of Kit McKinley from

WWI up to the present day, told through the voices of Kit and her family members, whose lives are forever

altered by her secret.

February 29, 1916: After an unusually long pregnancy, Lillian McKinley, whose husband has been killed in the

war, gives birth to a baby girl on Leap Year Day. Kit proves to be a happy and intelligent child, but unnaturally

slow to age. For decades, she and her family must keep on the move to protect her secret--from insatiable

newshounds, Nazi scientists, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies. When Kit at last can pass for an adult,

she must decide whether she wants to stay perpetually on the run or form lasting ties. Ultimately, once the

human genome is mapped and research on altering it begins, she'll need to make some difficult choices about

the strange quirk in her DNA that has made her who she is.

Perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson's Life After Life and Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife, The Leap

Year Gene is a race through the past century's burgeoning understanding of genetics, eugenics, and what

constitutes "normal," while exploring the tensions, love, and sense of duty that can bind families together or

split them apart.