Lessons in Chemistry
The No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller and BBC Between the Covers Book Club pick
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- 37,99 zł
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- 37,99 zł
Publisher Description
THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES and #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The multi-million copy bestseller
As read on BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Best Debut Novel Award
'Sparky, rip-roaring, funny, with big-hearted fully formed, loveable characters' SUNDAY TIMES
'The most charming, life-enhancing novel I've read in ages. Strongly recommend' INDIA KNIGHT
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Your ability to change everything - including yourself - starts here
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott 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 resign, she reluctantly signs on as the host of a cooking show, Supper at Six. But her revolutionary approach to cooking, fuelled by scientific and rational commentary, grabs the attention of a nation.
Soon, a legion of overlooked housewives find themselves daring to change the status quo. One molecule at a time.
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A Book of the Year for: Guardian, Times, Sunday Times, Good Housekeeping, Woman & Home, Stylist, TLS, Oprah Daily, Newsweek, Mail on Sunday, New York Times, India Knight, Hay Festival, Amazon and many others
SOON TO BE A MAJOR APPLE TV SERIES STARRING BRIE LARSON
'Biting and cheerIng in exactly the right measure' JOJO MOYES
'I loved Lessons in Chemistry and am devastated to have finished it!' NIGELLA LAWSON
'Laugh-out-loud funny and brimming with life, generosity and courage' RACHEL JOYCE
'A novel that sparks joy with every page' ELIZABETH DAY
'Elizabeth Zott is an iconic heroine' PANDORA SYKES
'A page-turning and highly satisfying tale' MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD, author of GREAT CIRCLE
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. Agent: Jennifer Joel, ICM.
