Prizes
A Novel
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"SURPRISINGLY FUN . . . The heroic trio lead strenuous lives, ER-style, all with an eye for the Nobel Prize."
--Kirkus Reviews
Now from the bestselling author of Love Story and Doctors comes a powerful and moving saga of three extraordinary individuals as they compete for the ultimate glory: the Nobel Prize. Erich Segal takes us inside the research labs and clinics, the homes and hearts, of the world's most elite doctors and scientists--two men and one woman--whose genius, dedication, and passion cannot always win for them the love and recognition they so desperately seek.
Loyalty and betrayal, disappointment and loss, scandal and secrets--all will play roles in the personal and professional lives of these gifted scientists who hold the key to life and death for so many. And through it all the Nobel Prize beckons with its seductive promise. Two will be selected for this highest honor; one of them will not live to receive it. Yet all will discover the enduring truth: that life has many prizes to offer, and many come to us in the most unexpected ways. . . .
"COMPELLING . . . It is reward in itself to follow the chronicle of three trailblazing scientists, each out to better the world while conquering his own personal demons."
--West Coast Review of Books
A MAIN SELECTION OF THE LITERARY GUILD(c)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Segal stretches himself in this wisest, most mature of his novels, a long, richly researched work about scientific genius that offers substantial rewards. Many will feel giddy when entering the mind of child prodigy Isabel da Costa, a physicist who creates a formula for the Unified Field Theory that baffled Einstein for the last 20 years of his life. Also on hand and headed toward likely Nobel Prizes are Sandy Raven, a geneticist who reverses the aging process in cells, and tragic Adam Coopersmith, who creates MR-Alpha, a drug that overcomes the antivirus that keeps many women from becoming pregnant. The childhoods, family dramas and love affairs of these three geniuses generate steady interest, as do their battles to be accepted, but the real kicker comes when two of the three find themselves facing fatal illnesses. Some of Segal's pages are less than inspired, mainly those about Sandy's obsession with an actress who becomes head of 20th Century-Fox, but few will care as Isabel, Adam and Sandy hack into undiscovered country and Nobels hover ever closer in what could be Segal's biggest hit since Love Story. 250,000 first printing; major ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection; Doubleday Book Club selection; Reader's Digest Condensed Book.
