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

Lauren Redniss' second graphic novel, Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, is a chronicle of the lives of those devoted lovers and brilliant scientists, and an exploration of the long-term effects of their research. Starting out, the young Curies dovetail work and married life while studying the radioactive properties of various substances, and their collaboration yields a Nobel Prize in Physics although their marital bliss is all too brief. Once the destructive capabilities of elements such as radium are discovered, the book's narrative begins cutting between the scientists' lives and the future consequences of their work. Many of the transitions have an instinctive feel: a passage about Marie giving birth to her second daughter is followed by one about J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was born that same year and would become known as the "father of the atomic bomb." This is soon followed by the infamous bombing of Hiroshima. Throughout the book, Redniss combines her own illustrations with photographs, maps, collages, and other artifacts. Her figure drawings are often distorted or rendered with glowing blue ink, suggesting the damage that the Curies' radioactive discoveries were causing to their own bodies. The effect is haunting, but to her credit, Redniss balances the deadly aspects of radioactivity with some positives, touching on its use in life-saving medical procedures. Radioactive, the first graphic novel nominated for a National Book Award in the non-fiction category, shows that the Curies' work resulted in both good and bad, while providing a fascinating take on their legacy.