{"product_id":"children-of-radium-a-buried-inheritance-9781982180768","title":"Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e#1 International Bestseller * Finalist for the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times \u003c\/i\u003eBook Prize * Named a Best Book of the Year by \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn the tradition of\u003ci\u003e The Hare with Amber Eyes\u003c\/i\u003e, this \"profound...comic...[and] unconventional\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e) family memoir investigates the dark legacy of the author's great-grandfather, a talented German-Jewish chemist who wound up developing chemical weapons and gas mask filters for the Nazis.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Joe Dunthorne began researching his family history, he expected to write the account of their harrowing escape from Nazi Germany in 1935. What he found in his great-grandfather Siegfried's voluminous, unpublished, partially translated memoir was a much darker, more complicated story. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSiegfried was an eccentric Jewish scientist living in a small town north of Berlin, where he began by developing a radioactive toothpaste before moving on to products with a more sinister military connection--first he made and tested gas-mask filters, and then he was invited to establish a chemical weapons laboratory. By 1933, he was the laboratory's director, helping the Nazis to \"improve\" their poisons and prepare for large-scale production. \"I confess to my descendants who will read these lines that I made a grave error,\" he wrote. \"I cannot shake off the great debt on my conscience.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eArmed only with his great-grandfather's rambling, nearly two-thousand-page deathbed memoir and a handful of archival clues, Dunthorne traveled to Munich, Ammendorf, Berlin, Ankara, and Oranienburg--a place where hundreds of unexploded bombs remain hidden in the irradiated soil--to uncover the sprawling, unsettling legacy of Siegfried's work. Seeking to understand one \"jolly grandpa\" with a patchy psychiatric history, Dunthorne confronts the uncomfortable questions that lie at the heart of every family: Can we ever understand our origins? Is every family story a work of fiction? And if the truth can be found, will we be able to live with it? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A galvanizing and revelatory saga\" (\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e) and \"a slippery marvel\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/i\u003e, London), \u003ci\u003eChildren of Radium\u003c\/i\u003e is a deeply humane and endlessly surprising meditation on inheritance that considers the long half-life of trauma, the weight of guilt, and the ever-evasive nature of the truth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Joe Dunthorne\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Scribner Book Company\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/28\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.36h x 5.44w x 0.72d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781982180768\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJoe Dunthorne is the author of \u003ci\u003eChildren of Radium\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Adulterants\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eO Positive: Poems\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWild Abandon\u003c\/i\u003e, and\u003ci\u003e Submarine\u003c\/i\u003e, which was translated into fifteen languages and made into an award-winning film. His work has been published in \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMcSweeney's\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGranta\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e. He was born in Wales and lives in London.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Joe Dunthorne \/ Paperback \/ English","offer_id":48449290207389,"sku":"9781982180768","price":22.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/files\/img_b3e8e2e9-93ad-45f1-b777-8c01df0724e9.jpg?v=1781631447","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/children-of-radium-a-buried-inheritance-9781982180768","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}