Synopses & Reviews
In 1891, 24 year old Marie, née Marya Sklodowska, moved from Warsaw to Paris, where she found work in the laboratory of Pierre Curie, a scientist engaged in research on heat and magnetism. They fell in love. They took their honeymoon on bicycles. They expanded the periodic table, discovering two new elements with startling properties, radium and polonium. They recognized radioactivity as an atomic property, heralding the dawn of a new scientific era. They won the Nobel Prize. Newspapers mythologized the couple's romance, beginning articles on the Curies with "Once upon a time . . . " Then, in 1906, Pierre was killed in a freak accident. Marie continued their work alone. She won a second Nobel Prize in 1911, and fell in love again, this time with the married physicist Paul Langevin. Scandal ensued. Duels were fought.
In the century since the Curies began their work, we've struggled with nuclear weapons proliferation, debated the role of radiation in medical treatment, and pondered nuclear energy as a solution to climate change. In Radioactive, Lauren Redniss links these contentious questions to a love story in 19th Century Paris.
Radioactive draws on Redniss's original reporting in Asia, Europe and the United States, her interviews with scientists, engineers, weapons specialists, atomic bomb survivors, and Marie and Pierre Curie's own granddaughter.
Whether young or old, scientific novice or expert, no one will fail to be moved by Lauren Redniss's eerie and wondrous evocation of one of history's most intriguing figures.
Review
“[Radioactive is] a deeply unusual and forceful thing to have in your hands. Ms. Rednisss text is long, literate and supple…Her drawings are both vivid and ethereal…Radioactive is serious science and brisk storytelling. The word ‘luminous is a critics cliché, to be avoided at all costs, but it fits.” New York Times
Review
“One of the most beautiful books-as-object that Ive ever seen.” Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love
Review
“[A] sumptuously illustrated visual biography….Radioactive is an incisive look at sciences greatest partnership.” Vogue
Review
“[An] excellent new book.” Robert Krulwich, NPR
Review
“Radioactive is quite unlike any book I have ever readpart history, part love story, part art work and all parts sheer imaginative genius.” Malcolm Gladwell
Review
“Absolutely dazzling. Lauren Redniss has created a book that is both vibrant history and a work of art. Like radium itself, Radioactive glows with energy.” Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Review
“Radioactive offer innumerable wonders. Colors suddenly bloom into tremendous feeling, history contracts into a pair of elongated figures locked in an embrace, then expands again in an explosive rush of words. In this wholly original book about passion and discovery Lauren Redniss has invented her own unique form.” Nicole Krauss, author of The History of Love
Synopsis
SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE directed by Marjane Sartrapi, starring Rosamund Pike and Sam Riley.
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
"Vivid and ethereal" -New York Times
"Radioactive is quite unlike any book I have ever read--part history, part love story, part art work and all parts sheer imaginative genius."
-- Malcolm Gladwell
Radioactive is the mesmerizing, landmark illustrated biography of Marie Curie, by acclaimed author and artist Lauren Redniss. Through brilliant visual storytelling, Redniss walks us through Curie's life, which was marked by extraordinary scientific discovery and dramatic personal trauma-- from her complex working and romantic relationship with Pierre Curie, to their discovery of two new scientific elements, to Pierre's tragic death, to Marie's two Nobel Prizes. A haunting and wondrous portrait of one of history's most intriguing figures, Radioactive combines archival photos, images, and clippings with dazzling line drawings and a compelling narrative to tell Curie's story. Far more than an art book or a graphic novel, Radioactive is a stunning visual biography and a true work of art.
--New York Times
Synopsis
Lauren Redniss has created a fascinating and deeply moving visual biography that walks students through the story of Marie Curie's life, which was marked by both extraordinary scientific discover and dramatic personal trauma. From her romantic partnership with Pierre, through his tragic decline from radium poisoning and death in a traffic accident, to the scandalous affair with another fellow scientist that almost jeopardized her second Nobel Prize, it also casts an eye forward to survey the changes wrought by Curie's discovery of radioactivity--illuminating the path from the Curie laboratory past the bright red mushroom clouds in the Nevada desert through Three Mile Island and the advance in radiation therapy and nuclear technology today.
Freshman Common Read: University of Cincinnati, Texas A&M Commerce
--Nicole Krauss, author of The History of Love
Synopsis
The National Book Award Finalist is now a major motion picture directed by Marjane Sartrapi, starring Rosamund Pike and Sam Riley.
"Vivid and ethereal."--The New York Times
"Radioactive is quite unlike any book I have ever read--part history, part love story, part art work and all parts sheer imaginative genius."--Malcolm Gladwell
A visual journey into the life of Marie Curie, as told through the dazzling collage style of acclaimed author and artist Lauren Redniss.
Radioactive is the mesmerizing, landmark illustrated biography of Marie Curie, by acclaimed author and artist Lauren Redniss. Through brilliant visual storytelling, Redniss walks us through Curie's life, which was marked by extraordinary scientific discovery and dramatic personal trauma--from her complex working and romantic relationship with Pierre Curie, to their discovery of two new scientific elements, to Pierre's tragic death, to Marie's two Nobel Prizes. A haunting and wondrous portrait of one of history's most intriguing figures, Radioactive combines archival photos, images, and clippings with dazzling line drawings and a compelling narrative to tell Curie's story. Far more than an art book or a graphic novel, Radioactive is a stunning visual biography and a true work of art.
Synopsis
A National Book Award finalist, the mesmerizing, landmark illustrated biography Radioactive is finally available in a stunning paperback edition. Through words and her own gorgeously crafted illustrations, artist and journalist Lauren Redniss tells the story of Marie Curie, née Marya Sklodowska, and her working and romantic relationship with Pierre Curie, including their discovery of two new scientific elements with startling properties—as well as the tragic car accident that killed Pierre, Maries two Nobel Prizes, and her scandalous affair with a married scientist. And Radioactive looks beyond the contours of Maries life, surveying the changes wrought by the Curies discoveries—nuclear weapons, radiation in medical treatment, and nuclear energy as a possible energy source—to create an eerie, wondrous, and moving evocation of one of history's most intriguing figures.
About the Author
Lauren Redniss is the author of Century Girl: 100 years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies and Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout, a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award for non fiction. Her writing and drawing has appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times, which nominated her work for the Pulitzer Prize. She was a fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars & Writers at the New York Public Library in 2008-2009 and became a New York Institute for the Humanities fellow in 2010. Beginning in 2012, she will be artist-in-residence at the American Museum of Natural History. She teaches at Parsons the New School for Design in New York City.