Radioactive

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, nee 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, Marie's two Nobel Prizes, and her scandalous affair with a married scientist. And Radioactive looks beyond the contours of Marie's 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.

Reviews

"[An] excellent new book." -- Robert Krulwich, NPR "[A] sumptuously illustrated visual biography...Radioactive is an incisive look at science's greatest partnership." -- Vogue "One of the most beautiful books-as-object that I've ever seen." -- Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love "[Radioactive is] a deeply unusual and forceful thing to have in your hands. Ms. Redniss's 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 critic's cliche, to be avoided at all costs, but it fits." -- 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 "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 "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