We are thrilled to welcome New York Times bestselling novelist Marie Benedict as part of our on-going online author event series, Must Read TV. Skylark’s free-range bookseller-at-large Mary O’Malley and our bookselling friend Pamela Klinger-Horn (whom some of you will know from last year’s epic Book Club Buffet) will be in conversation with Marie to discuss to discuss her riveting new historical novel, Her Hidden Genius, which tells the true story of Rosalind Franklin, a woman who sacrificed her life to discover the nature of our very DNA but whose world-changing contributions were hidden by the men around her.
You can register for this free Zoom event by clicking here. The event takes place at 7:00 p.m. CST on Thursday, February 3.
Rosalind Franklin has always been an outsider—brilliant, but different. Whether working at the laboratory she adored in Paris or toiling at a university in London, she feels closest to the science, those unchanging laws of physics and chemistry that guide her experiments. When she is assigned to work on DNA, she believes she can unearth its secrets.
Rosalind knows if she just takes one more X-ray picture—one more after thousands—she can unlock the building blocks of life. Never again will she have to listen to her colleagues complain about her, especially Maurice Wilkins who'd rather conspire about genetics with James Watson and Francis Crick than work alongside her.
Then it finally happens—the double helix structure of DNA reveals itself to her with perfect clarity. But what unfolds next, Rosalind could have never predicted.
Marie Benedict is a lawyer with more than ten years' experience as a litigator at two of the country's premier law firms and for Fortune 500 companies. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College with a focus in history and art history and a cum laude graduate of the Boston University School of Law. Marie is the author of The Other Einstein, Carnegie's Maid, The Only Woman in the Room, Lady Clementine, and The Mystery of Mrs. Christie. She views herself as an archaeologist of sorts, telling the untold stories of women. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family.
