Joe Dunthorne is probably best known for his debut novel Submarine, published in 2008, which I read -pre-blog, and the 2010 film adapted from it by Richard Ayoade. Two more novels followed, Wild Abandon which won the RSA Encore award for a second novel, followed by the brilliant The Adulterants and then a poetry collection O Positive which is superb.
Now he’s turned to non-fiction for his family memoir, which begins with the story of his great-grandfather Siegfried, a chemist, who invented radioactive toothpaste, becoming a Jewish refugee from the Nazis. Siegfried had himself written a memoir already – two thousand pages of unpublished text, mostly unread, but luckily for Joe, translated. As you might expect, it tells a different story to the family’s verbal history with some difficult and dark areas to address in Siegfried’s career and personal life.
Joe came to Mostly Books in Abingdon on Friday to talk about the book in conversation with John Mitchinson, publisher and co-host of the Backlisted podcast. Joe read from the book’s first chapter, which was simultaneously funny in a self-deprecating way yet promised moving and dark moments ahead. Joe’s mum helped a lot with his research and from conversation she comes over as a great character too. Siegfried does dominate the first two thirds of the book, but his sister, Joe’s Great-aunt, as they discovered also had an amazing story to tell.
Joe and John meshed really well in conversation, it was absolutely fascinating and I can’t wait to read Children of Radium. He has recorded a series for the BBC History podcast – Half-Life which will form a super companion to the book.
Having been the first ones to arrive at the bookshop, we were lucky in that Joe was already there, and I got to ask him about his poetry (he’s been writing more recently), and he signed all my copies of his books with personal inscriptions. He was delightful to talk to – thank you Joe. I can really recommend his novels and poems, and will surely love this book too – watch this space.
Joe Dunthorne, Children of Radium, Hamish Hamilton hardback, 220 pages.
BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiilate link (free UK P&P)
Yes, I only knew him for Submarine, specifically the Richard Ayoade film, but this nonfiction title appears to be worth closer attention.
The first pages that he read were excellent. His other novels and poems are brilliant too.