HER HIDDEN GENIUS

Nicola Barber's expressive narration captures the inner life and scientific mindset of Rosalind Franklin, the great English biophysicist. Barber's ability to seamlessly switch intonation from the protagonist's upper-class British inflection to American, French, and other accents shapes the listening experience of this remarkable story of grit and determination. Author Benedict's use of the first-person provides an insider's feeling of the challenges experienced by a female scientist in the male-dominated world of 1950s genetic research. The plot follows the real-life Franklin on her epoch-making research on the structures of DNA, RNA, and viruses. Her work with X-ray crystallography underpinned the Nobel laureates whose conceptualization of the double helix set the standard for genetic study for generations. This historical novel follows Franklin's remarkable scientific work from 1947 to her early death from cancer in 1958. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2022]