Description

'The best book I’ve read in the past year . . . A masterpiece' Financial Times ‘A voyage into the heart of twentieth-century darkness [...] narrated with the twists and turns of a detective story’ Observer

Joe Dunthorne never met his great-grandfather Siegfried: an eccentric Jewish scientist who escaped Nazi Berlin in the 1930s and snuck back under cover of night to rescue the family heirlooms. Decades later, Siegfried wrote about his adventures in a memoir so long and rambling that almost no one ever managed to read it. Decades after that, his great-grandson Joe unearthed the dusty manuscript and got a nasty surprise.

Because hidden on page 1,692 of the unreadable memoir was a shocking confession... So begins a gripping journey into the twisting moral maze of the twentieth century – a journey to uncover a radioactive family secret.

Paperback
Publication: 2 Apr 2026, Penguin

ISBN: 9780241517475

Extent: 320 pages

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Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance by Joe Dunthorne

    'The best book I’ve read in the past year . . . A masterpiece' Financial Times ‘A voyage into the heart... Read more

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        Description

        'The best book I’ve read in the past year . . . A masterpiece' Financial Times ‘A voyage into the heart of twentieth-century darkness [...] narrated with the twists and turns of a detective story’ Observer

        Joe Dunthorne never met his great-grandfather Siegfried: an eccentric Jewish scientist who escaped Nazi Berlin in the 1930s and snuck back under cover of night to rescue the family heirlooms. Decades later, Siegfried wrote about his adventures in a memoir so long and rambling that almost no one ever managed to read it. Decades after that, his great-grandson Joe unearthed the dusty manuscript and got a nasty surprise.

        Because hidden on page 1,692 of the unreadable memoir was a shocking confession... So begins a gripping journey into the twisting moral maze of the twentieth century – a journey to uncover a radioactive family secret.

        Paperback
        Publication: 2 Apr 2026, Penguin

        ISBN: 9780241517475

        Extent: 320 pages

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