Fission

Winner of the 2011 Reader Views Literary Award for Historical Fiction.

First they tried to deny her.
Then they tried to destroy her.
But she survived to discover nuclear fission
and spark the race for the atomic bomb.

Imagine a story of hate and greed, intrigue and danger, war and destruction, the slaughter of the innocents on a biblical scale and the collapse of empire. And imagine at the centre of it all one little woman, brilliant but shy, victimized but resolute, betrayed but ultimately vindicated. What a story that would make! Well, you don't have to imagine it, because that is the Lise Meitner story. And I didn't have to invent any of it . . . it's all true.