Dwight Garner
Described simply, Radioactive is an illustrated biography of Marie Curie, the Polish-born French physicist famous for her work on radioactivity…and her equally accomplished husband, Pierre…Described less simply, it's a deeply unusual and forceful thing to have in your hands. Ms. Redniss's text is long, literate and supple. She catches Marie Curie's "delicate and grave" manner as a young student, new to Paris; she notes the "luminous goulash" of radium and zinc that one chemist prepares; she observes with pleasure another man's "thriving mustache." She has a firm command of, but an easy way with, the written word.
—The New York Times
Marcia Bartusiak
Writer and artist Lauren Redniss has created a unique work difficult to categorize. A blend of original art, photographs, graphics and text, Radioactive…is meant to be both read and experienced…My wonder never ceased as I turned these pages. Visual echoes of Matisse, Gauguin and Van Gogh play across the book's pages. The prose is spare and simple, maintaining a metronomic beat that resonates with the underlying tragedies woven throughout the book. More than a biography, Radioactive reflects on many of the heart-rending repercussions that emanated from atomic research, from Hiroshima to Chernobyl.
—The Washington Post
From the Publisher
[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 cliché, 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
Malcolm Gladwell
Radioactive is quite unlike any book I have ever read—part history, part love story, part art work and all parts sheer imaginative genius.
Vogue
[A] sumptuously illustrated visual biography….Radioactive is an incisive look at science’s greatest partnership.
New York Times
[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 cliché, to be avoided at all costs, but it fits.
Elizabeth Gilbert
One of the most beautiful books-as-object that I’ve ever seen.
Richard Rhodes
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.
Robert Krulwich
[An] excellent new book.
Nicole Krauss
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.
