Children of Radium

by Joe Dunthorne

Paperback

About the author

Joe Dunthorne was born and brought up in Swansea, and is a graduate of the University of East Anglia's Creative Writing MA, where he was awarded the Curtis Brown prize.

His poetry has been published in magazines and anthologies and has featured on Channel 4, and BBC Radio 3 and 4. A pamphlet collection, Joe Dunthorne: Faber New Poets 5 was published in 2010.

His first novel, Submarine, the story of a dysfunctional family in Swansea narrated by Oliver Tate, aged 15, was published in 2008.

Reviews

[Ben Parker]

An extraordinary family memoir, wrapped in a meandering investigative timeline. Witty and sardonic about grim material; he has a light-touch writing style I want to find more of. There are smart takes, emotional undercurrents and a restrained amazement and affection about lives swept up and tormented by history.

[Recommended by the cashier at a bookshop so that works sometimes…]

[Nicola]

Not sure how I feel about this one. Compelling, and it provided a window into some of the mundane horrors and consequences across Europe of Nazi Germany in a way that didn’t shy away from the everyday evil of it all - compelling, murky, oblique, memorable. I yearned for more to hold on to; but this, too, is a consequence of atrocity: the tearing up of records, the burying of attempts to bear witness.

I suspect I’ll be thinking about this one for some time to come.

[Tiffany Taylor]

A compelling and gripping insight into history surrounding radioactive materials, chemicals and poisons written by the great grandson of a man who was involved (knowingly or unknowingly) in the production of gases and gas masks used by the Nazi’s in WW2.

Again I’ve learned things from those years which I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t picked up this book. As well as acknowledging the difficulties and the unreliability of his grandfathers memoir; he highlighted people who dedicated their lives to protecting others.

It’s an honest and thought provoking story written in an investigative style with comedic elements particularly when referring to members of his family and their thoughts and comments.

[Viv]

I enjoyed the narration, but it wasn't addictive. There is something to be said about the rawness in which Dunthorne reveals his family's life, especially according to a manuscript that may have never been found.

[Allan S Ferguson]

I enjoyed reading this and learned a number of things while reading it