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Author Jillian Cantor says that Sliding Doors has long been one of her favourite movies, and her idea of applying the concept of ‘what if’ and exploring the outcome of ‘the road not taken ’ to the life of Marie Curie, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the first person to win it twice, is enthralling. Clearly Marie Curie did pretty well for herself. As a woman in the rigid patriarchal world of science she not only ignored the boundaries of her gender but made history with her groundbreaking discoveries, despite also being born in a country where women were denied a university education. It is the sacrifices that Curie made to reach those heights that are explored here as Jillian Cantor weaves two page-turning stories in alternating but intriguingly interlinking narratives.
Marie Curie was born Marya Sklodowska in Russian-controlled Poland in 1867. She lost her mother at the age of 10 and together with her sisters was raised by a father whose passion for learning inspired his girls to reach for the stars. It helped that the whole family were academically brilliant and Marya especially was a gifted scientist rapacious for knowledge.
She intended to follow her sister to Paris to study at the Sorbonne and to help fund them both, worked as a governess to a rich family. But then she fell in love with Kazimierz, a budding mathematician and the eldest son of the house. They become engaged but despite her smarts Marya is deemed not good enough by his family, who threaten to cut him off if he marries her. It is at this point that Jillian Cantor’s parallel universes begin.
In real life Kazimierz broke off the engagement and Marya ended up in Paris, where she changed her name to Marie. There she married scientist Pierre Curie. Together they discovered radium and changed the world. But what if Kaz had defied his parents and Marya had chosen love and domestic bliss back in Poland?
“The real Marie Curie lived an amazing life, so I hope readers learn about her, but also I think it’s interesting to consider the choices we all make as women and mothers and career professionals. And to think about what it really means to ‘have it all’,” says Jillian.
For Marie Curie ‘having it all’ had many consequences and the drama of her real life is beautifully painted in all its heart-breaking detail. As for Marya, the ultimate question is: has the sacrifice of not pursuing the education which ultimately changed all our lives paid off?