A Fierce Radiance

A Novel

De: Lauren Belfer

Narrado por: Paula Christensen

A Washington Post Best Novel of the Year

An NPR Best Mystery of the Year

This suspenseful novel from the New York Times bestselling author of City of Light follows a photojournalist as she takes on an assignment that will involve blackmail, espionage, and murder—all in the early days of America’s involvement in World War II.

In the anxious and uncertain days after Pearl Harbor, beautiful, talented Life magazine photojournalist Claire Shipley is assigned to cover the clinical testing of a new medication at the renowned Rockefeller Institute in New York. Still grieving the death of her young daughter from an infection, Claire is shocked by what she finds there: the doctors and researchers are attempting to cure fatal infections with a little-known, temperamental medicine made from green mold, which they’re calling penicillin—and that may be just the beginning of their breakthroughs.

As the nation plunges into war, Claire begins an intense love affair with James Stanton, an Institute physician given the difficult, top-secret task of coordinating penicillin research for the military. Meanwhile Claire’s long-estranged father, a self-made millionaire entrepreneur, is realizing the potential of the new mold-derived medications to transform the very nature of human existence.

When James’s sister and colleague dies under suspicious circumstances, the stakes involved in the antibiotic breakthrough become starkly clear. Caught between the extremes of war and greed, Claire finds her new relationship challenged in ways she could never have predicted.

At once a thriller, a love story, a family saga, and a window into the tumultuous home front during World War II, A FIERCE RADIANCE will captivate readers.

So many layers of intrigue

A love story during WWII is just one layer. Big Pharma, espionage and the experience of being a working woman during this era kept me coming back for more.

Needs to be abridged!

A friend recommended this book. For those of us interested in the development of antibiotics during World War II A FIERCE RADIANCE is very educational. It is a fictionalized story that is basically scientifically sound. However, the story moves at a frustratingly slow pace. I cannot recommend this otherwise excellent story unless it is abridged.

Historical Fiction Worth Your Time

I love when a novel inspires me to begin my own research into a topic, even if it's only to scratch the surface a bit. The availability of antibiotics, or lack thereof, was never something I gave a thought. As a person born after antibiotics were a familiar part of the medical lexicon, I didn't consider what it was like before we could cover a cut with antibiotic cream and push it from our minds. To think that scraping your knee could result in your death was a revelation to me. This novel is worth your time because of the history woven within it, but you'll enjoy that time because of the story that sometimes breaks your heart and sometimes gives you a great deal of hope.

History is good; writing poor

Pages are filled with tripe while historical characters and situations are good. Meh meh meh

Disappointed

While the historical events were very interesting, the plot meandered and the love story was weak. It went on too long