Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout [Paperback]

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. Ahaunting 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.

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 . . lƒ6