Lessons in Chemistry
The modern classic multi-million-copy bestseller
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4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
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- £2.99
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Publisher Description
Discover the must-read Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, the perfect uplifting summer read, now a major Apple TV series starring Brie Larson.
'The most charming, life-enhancing novel I've read in ages' Sunday Times
‘A page-turning and highly satisfying tale’ – Maggie Shipstead, author of Great Circle
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Your ability to change everything - including yourself - starts here
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, she would be the first to point out that there is no such thing.
But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality.
Forced to leave her job at the institute, she soon finds herself the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show, Supper at Six.
But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn't just teaching women to cook.
She's daring them to change the status quo. One molecule at a time.
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A Book of the Year for:
Guardian, Times, Sunday Times, New York Times, Good Housekeeping, Woman & Home, Stylist, TLS Oprah Daily, Newsweek, Mail on Sunday, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, India Knight, Hay Festival, Waterstones, Amazon, Books are My Bag and many more!
Author of the Year at the British Book Awards
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Best Debut Novel Award
Winner of the Books are My Bag Reader's Choice Award
Winner of the Books are My Bag Breakthrough Author Award
Shortlisted for the HWA Crown Award
Praise for Lessons in Chemistry:
‘Full of humour, heartbreak and characters who feel like real people’ Red Magazine
'Thought-provoking and stylish' Guardian
'Laugh-out-loud funny and brimming with life, generosity and courage' Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
'I loved Lessons in Chemistry and am devastated to have finished it!' Nigella Lawson
'A novel that sparks joy with every page' Elizabeth Day, author of Magpie
'Witty and sometimes hilarious ... the Catch-22 of early feminism' Stephen King
‘A beautiful, sharp, funny and dark modern classic. I adored it' Chris Whitaker, author of We Begin at the End
Lessons in Chemistry has sold over 6 million copies worldwide across all formats, The Guardian, December 2023
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus strikes an addictive balance between wit and sentiment (and, of course, a little science). At the novel’s centre is Elizabeth Zott. A female research chemist in the 1950s, Elizabeth is an isolated figure rarely shown the respect she deserves, facing misogyny and harassment at seemingly every turn. Her past has not been without tragedy, and her future won’t be either, but Elizabeth’s intelligence, self-possession and unwillingness to suffer fools are what define her. In a book that takes in love, motherhood and its heroine’s unlikely ascent to stardom as a feminist TV cook, she is joined by a cast of eccentric yet instantly likeable supporting characters—including a remarkably gifted canine. Deeply capable yet treated as underdogs, they help each other to take on an unfair world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Garmus debuts with a perplexing feminist fairy tale set in 1960s Southern California. Plucky chemist Elizabeth Zott believes she's not like other women ("Most of the women she'd met in college claimed they were only there to get their MRS," Garmus writes. "It was disconcerting, as if they'd all drunk something that had rendered them temporarily insane"). She proceeds to fall madly in love with her colleague, have his child, and then, after being sidelined by double standards, sexual harassment, and scandal around her pregnancy, she's dismissed from her job and becomes an overnight sensation as the host of a daytime cooking show. This trajectory, and its few tragedies, are intermittently interrupted by the anthropomorphized thoughts of her dog, Six-Thirty: "Humans were strange, Six-Thirty thought, the way they constantly battled dirt in their aboveground world, but after death willingly entombed themselves in it." In the end, everything works out—not because the patriarchy is destroyed or fairness is achieved, but thanks to the favors of a rich female benefactor equipped to strike back at those who humiliated Zott. While the scenes of Zott hosting her show do have their charm, the overall effect is about as deep as a Hallmark card. The author has a great voice, but contemporary readers will be left wondering who this is for.
Customer Reviews
Unusual, poignant and interesting
The story was very unusual. It was a very interesting to find out about the women’s place in The 1950´society
Just amazing. It will stay with you long after reading it.
Didn’t want to finish it, but couldn’t put it down. Made me laugh and cry, and also want to be a more interesting person. An amazing writer. Thank you.
So so much better than the show
I loved the show but this was so much better.