"The best book I’ve read in the past year . . . Dunthorne brings distinction and finesse to every sentence, such as when he speaks of the old man’s depression, “washing dishes as if trying to drown them”. A masterpiece."
Andrew O'Hagan, Financial Times
"Finely and gently crafted, an extraordinary and unexpected journey"
Philippe Sands, author of East West Street
"Brave, beautiful and incisive, an adventure that spans countries and resonates across generations. I have read many memoirs of the war and have never encountered anything like this. Lyrical but unflinching, this is an extraordinary book"
Ariana Neumann, author of When Time Stopped
"Children of Radium is delivered with radical honesty and self-deprecation that I found both intellectually and spiritually instructive. The opposite of propaganda has to be this persistent, courageous and meticulous search for the truth, against the odds, against the efforts of entire states, and against our instincts to present things in as mild and flattering a light as possible. It’s a story about the lasting, and very human, power of denial as well as an angle on the horrors of the 20th century unlike anything I’ve read before. Utterly moving, urgent and nuanced by the wisest of hearts. How many of the hardest truths have been buried and what still sets off the Geiger counter generations later? A staggering, genre-defining achievement."
Luke Kennard, author of Notes on the Sonnets and The Transition
"A deft, brilliant, deceptive book, somehow both devastating and hilarious. Dunthorne's family story is the best kind: both personal and universal, told with the darkest comedy and deep humanity. It is also a version of history at its most slippery, shaped by the flawed memories of the people we love and our own wayward attempts to make sense of them."
Sophie Elmhirst, author of Maurice and Maralyn
"Children of Radium is an investigative memoir like no other. Written with such clear-eyed intelligence, it's by turns wryly entertaining, morally complex and, ultimately, profoundly moving. It's a remarkable achievement from a writer who is consistently at the top of his game."
Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall and The Heartland
"Children of Radium is a moving, funny, disturbing and deeply surprising book, an action-packed meditation and a moral adventure story, full of the kinds of intimate and historical contradictions we all live with in one way or another. Like Primo Levi’s “Gray Zone,” the territory this book explores is defined by its ambiguity and complexity, and we are lucky to have a writer of Dunthorne’s enormous gifts to lead us on the trail."
Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask
"Beautifully crafted and deeply moving, Children of Radium is a work of searching intelligence, unstinting honesty and disarming wit. Somehow Joe Dunthorne manages to wrest compassion and human connection from some of the bleakest moments of modern history. This is a revelatory work."
Ekow Eshun, author of The Strangers
"Children of Radium is an exhilarating exploration of legacy. Unburying family secrets—especially secrets this big, this profound—is painstaking & heartbreaking work. In the hands of a lesser writer, a story like this would collapse, become just a mush of uncertainty. But Dunthorne is a masterful guide, surefooted and diligent and honest and funny. We are with him, enthralled, every step of the way."
Menachem Kaiser, author of Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure
"Devastating and brilliant. A complex but hugely readable story that ranges across the lingering half-life of twentieth century European history, all told with Joe Dunthorne’s trademark dry wit. It’s a cracker."
Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13
