Author:Per Olov Enquist,Tiina Nunnally
In 1878, Blanche Wittman was committed to Salpêtrière Hospital as an hysteric and placed in the care of the famous M. Charcot, who regularly displayed her, in a cataleptic state, before a public audience. Over time, the nature of her participation in these demonstrations changed; she graduated from patient to assistant and on leaving the hospital, was hired by Marie Curie to work in her Paris laboratory.
On 17 February 1898, radium was discovered and Blanche's exposure to it necessitated the amputation of all her limbs, save one. As for Marie, her husband and collaborator Pierre was weakened by illness and subsequently killed having wandered in front of an oncoming horse and cart.
Following this, she embarked on an ill-fated love affair, which, in 1911, almost cost her the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Using Blanche's notebooks - 'The Book of Questions' - Enquist deftly weaves fact and fiction in a powerful tale of scientific discovery, death, art love and the extraordinary relationship of two remarkable women at the dawn of a century of tremendous change.
The Story of Blanche and Marie was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
He is one of the contemporary novel's greatest human investigators
—— Paul Binding , Independent on SundayThe glimpsed idea of a wider, more poetic sensibility linking art, death, reading and love
—— James Urquhart , Mail on SundayEnquist brings out the sad sorority of two women who suffered grotesquely for love and work
—— Brenda Maddox , The TimesAnyone who read Per Olov Enquists dazzling novel...The Visit of the Royal Physician...will not be surprised to hear that he has written another fascinating, highly charged miracle of compression...Fiction rarely gets more interesting than this
—— John de Falbe , SpectatorDizzy with associations and questions, full of interest and appetite and the satisfactions of a good mind...often funny
—— Anne Enright , GuardianDense, perverse and fascinating biographical fiction
—— Caroline Moore , Sunday TelegraphBlanche's story is tragic and this part fact/part fiction account of her relationship with Nobel Prize-winning scientist Marie Curie is touching and disturbing... thought provoking and original
—— Big IssueEnquist weaves fact and fiction with such skill that his novel sometimes reads like a historical account of true events
—— Vanessa Curtis , Scotland on SundayHe treats these big themes with miniaturist care and attention, while his characters, trapped in history like insects in amber, are deeply and sympathetically observed...The result is exhilarating, elliptical, concise, dense, and richly rewarding
—— Christopher Hart , Literary ReviewBroadsheet reviewers had praised it as a 'work of genius' - and they were right. The book is Jacobson's masterpiece. The writing is flawless, with the author's trademark blending of tragedy and comedy. A ferocious intelligence courses through it, reminiscent of Philip Roth at his 'Counterlife' best
—— Jonathan Freedland , Jewish ChronicleThe biggest laugh and the biggest cry since Angela Carter's Small Children
—— Simon Schama , Books of the Year, ObserverA wonderful surprise
—— Leo Robson , New StatesmanPeter Ackroyd takes the reader, in his usual compelling, elegant style, back to Heinrich Schliemann's excavation of that ancient city
—— Erica Wagner , The TimesObermann is a lively creation
—— Scotland on Sunday
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