Books

Zenda Recommends: Children of Radiation by Joe Dunthorne

The publishing house itself points out, with regard to the book: “Long before Hiroshima, Chernóbil, the exclusion zones and the doomsday clock, the world lived through a golden age of radiation. In step with scientific advances, homes filled with radioactive products that promised to cure ailments, prolong life, and enhance beauty.
There was not yet an awareness of the serious risks involved
.

Joe Dunthorne always wanted to write about his great‑grandfather Siegfried, a Jewish chemist who traversed that slippery slope from scientific optimism to war crimes, something he preferred to hide in his two‑thousand‑page memoirs, in which he only confessed that he had made a grave error. Because, after inventing the popular radioactive toothpaste Doramad —which he even used on his pregnant wife—, that man with a troubled psychiatric history dedicated himself to developing gas mask filters and ended up directing a laboratory for Nazi chemical weapons.

In the manner of the artificers who, suited up in protective gear, continue to defuse bombs on European soil, this book traces the radioactive echo of twentieth‑century history. A silent, invisible echo that surfaces periodically, no matter how many layers of concrete we bury it beneath.”

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Author: Joe Dunthorne. Translation: Íñigo F. Lomana. Title: Children of Radiation Publisher: Gatopardo. Sales: Todos tus libros.


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