Half Life

by Jillian Cantor

  What was your favorite part of writing this novel? Least favorite?

  My favorite part of writing this book was figuring out the ways scenes could echo in both women’s lives but could mean entirely different things. I loved putting Marya and Marie in the same places (in Sweden, for instance, with Pierre and the swans) but deciding how those exact scenes would play out differently due to the differing circumstances. It felt like a really fun puzzle that I was constantly solving and re-solving as I wrote the first draft.

  I also loved thinking about all the things Marie might have wanted to change in her own life and giving her the power to do that in Marya’s storyline. She manages to alter the course of her niece’s and nephew’s lives and she stops Pierre from walking in front of a carriage, and her fictional relationship with her musical daughter is much different than the one based on her real-life relationship.

  My least favorite part was working on the scenes based on Marie’s life that were marred by tragedy, and there were a lot of them—Pierre’s death and the fallout from her affair and the death of her nephew and niece. I came to have a real fondness and respect for Marie and all the many obstacles she overcame to achieve what she did. So it was emotionally draining to keep reimagining and writing these terrible things that actually happened to her. But then it was inspiring, too, to reimagine the ways she always managed to persevere.

  You’re not a scientist, so what was it like to write about a woman whose entire life was science?

  I still get a knot in my stomach when I think about my high school chemistry class, so it was admittedly a little daunting when I first considered writing about a woman who won a Nobel Prize in chemistry. But even though this novel is about a scientist, I think, at its heart, it’s really about a woman struggling and pushing to be the very best in a man’s world. I don’t see Half Life as being about science as much as I see it being about gender and class and what it means to achieve as a woman when everything is stacked against you. These things are very relatable to me! That said, I really tried to do a lot of research on the science aspects of the story and hopefully got them right.

  What’s something that surprised you while writing this novel?

  The most surprising things were details I learned about Marie Curie’s life before I decided to write the novel. I knew that she and Pierre won a Nobel Prize for discovering radium. But the details of her personal life really astounded me. The idea that she almost married Kazimierz in Poland, of course, was surprising. But I had no idea that Pierre died fairly young and so tragically or how that would go on to shape the course of the rest of her life. I was also captivated and surprised by her sisters, and her daughters, and the amazing things they also achieved.

  Which character do you relate to most?

  I relate to Marya more than Marie on a personal level. Her life is quieter and focused on her family. And even though she has this burning desire to learn and make the world better, she also has this overwhelming connection to her daughter.

  But my favorite character in the novel is Pierre Curie, the brilliant dreamer with his head in the clouds. I loved writing him in both timelines, and I was so sad when he died in Marie’s story. I loved that I got to keep him alive in Marya’s story and write him becoming an old man.

  This novel is a departure from your last two World War II–era novels. Why did you take that leap?

  In all of my novels I’m always drawn to writing stories about strong women who do extraordinary things, and so writing about Marie Curie didn’t feel at all like a departure for me in that regard. I also have a penchant for telling stories that ask “What if?” And Half Life fits with that theme too. The backdrop and setting for this novel are very much different from my previous ones, but I found myself exploring the themes I come back to time and again: motherhood and sisterhood and what it means to be a woman and face adversity.

  What are you working on next?

  My next novel is called Beautiful Little Fools and will be out in 2022. It’s a reimagining of The Great Gatsby from the women’s points of view. It takes place before, during, and after the original novel and centers on the lives of the women and a detective investigating Jay Gatsby’s death.

  About the Book

  Reading Group Guide

  You have a choice. There is always a choice. This refrain is echoed throughout the book, both by Marya and Marie. Do you agree or disagree with this sentiment? Do you believe Marya and Marie both truly have choices? Why or why not?

  Marya’s life splits into two versions in 1891 when she makes one simple choice: She decides to get on the train to Paris to further her education. Or she stays in Poland and marries Kaz. What do you believe is the greatest impact of this one choice on Marya’s life? On Marie’s? What about on the world as a whole? On science?

  Compare and contrast the circumstances and opportunity for Marya in Poland and Marie in Paris. How much do you think environment and opportunity for the women shapes each one of their lives? Which one do you believe ultimately lives a better life?

  Marya and Marie are technically the same person, and yet many of their choices and actions diverge in different ways throughout the novel. Discuss the ways in which their characters are ultimately similar. Different?

  Both Marie and Marya have an important relationship with Pierre Curie. How does the scope of Pierre’s life, and work, change in each woman’s story? What is the importance of Pierre as a character throughout the novel? What is most important in Marie’s life: love or science? What about in Marya’s? Which woman has the better love story? Which woman made the greatest contribution to science?

  Both Marie and Marya say, “My body was not built to carry a baby.” But how is pregnancy ultimately different for each of them, based upon their circumstances? Who becomes a better mother, Marya or Marie? How and why does Klara turn out differently than Irene and Ève?

  In Marie’s storyline, Leokadia marries Kaz but gives up her piano career. In Marya’s, Leokadia pursues piano professionally and never marries, but she is still drawn to Kaz. Which life is a better life for her? Why do you think she still finds her way to Kaz in both storylines?

  Near the end, Marya clings to her sisters’ hands and says they are “three old women, forever connected to one another by blood and by love. And yes, by science, too.” Marie is similarly connected to her sisters at the end of her life. But Bronia’s and Hela’s lives turn out drastically different in the two storylines. Compare and contrast their lives in both stories. Which storyline is better for Bronia? For Hela? How do Marya’s actions irrevocably change her sisters’ lives, in ways both good and bad?

  From Poland to Paris to the rocky cliffs of Brittany to the front lines of World War I—what role does setting play in the novel? How does the setting help inform and shape Marya’s life differently from Marie’s?

  In the very end, Ève plays piano for Marie and Klara plays it for Marya. What role does music play both here and throughout the book? How is the piano both different and the same for Marie and for Marya?

  The book opens and closes with Marie on her deathbed, examining the choices she made in her personal life: love, marriage, education, motherhood. But in the very end she thinks that radium is everything, the only thing. What do you think she means by this? What is the importance of radium in both Marie’s life and her death? How is this different in Marya’s story?

  Marya thinks that half-life is such a funny term, so unscientific. While Marie thinks in the end that the half-life of radium is 1,600 years, that her radium will long outlive her. Why is the novel called Half Life? Discuss both the scientific and personal significance of that term for Marya and for Marie.

  Read On

  Excerpt from In Another Time

  PROLOGUE

  Hanna, 1958

  I haven’t told Stuart the whole truth about where I came from. Because for one thing, he wouldn’t understand. How could he, when I don’t really understand it for myself? And for another, even if I did tell
him, he wouldn’t believe it. He would frown, and his blue eyes would soften, crinkle just around the edges, illuminating both his age and his kindness. Oh, my dear, he might say, as Sister Louisa once did, after I’d stumbled into the last-standing church in Gutenstat, freezing cold and sick with thirst and hunger.

  Sometimes, even now, I wonder if I made it all up. If Max, too, was just a dream, a figment of my imagination. Impossible, like all the rest of it.

  You have been through a trauma, Sister Louisa reminded me, after I first saw the doctor in Berlin. Your mind plays tricks to protect you.

  And it was a strange thing, but when Sister said it, I almost believed her. How could she be wrong, after all? This nun with her wrinkly face, pale as snow, and light gray eyes, with her habit and her soft smile. She wouldn’t lie. Then she pointed to my violin in my hand. Can I hear you play, my dear?

  She touched my Stradivari. I’d had it since my sixteenth birthday, an extravagant present from Zayde Moritz, just before he passed. I was holding it when I came to in the field. I’d held it playing for Max, in the bookshop once, too. And sometimes the only thing to me that still feels real, even now, is my violin.

  I have played the violin since I was six years old, and it has always felt a part of me, another limb, one that is necessary and vital to my daily survival. My violin connects my present and my past, my dreams and my reality. My fingers move nimbly over the strings, my mind forgetting all I’ve lost or forgotten. There is only the music that is my constant companion. Nothing but the music. Not Stuart. Not Max. Not now. Not the past, either.

  “Hanna,” Stuart interrupts me today. I’ve etched the date, November 6, 1958, in pencil at the top of my music, so I know it is real, so I don’t forget. I do this every single day and have since I was living in London with Julia. While I sometimes still forget how old I am now, my fingers do not move as they used to. Some days my knuckles swell, and I must cover them in bags of ice when I get home after practice. I hide this from Stuart, too, like so much else.

  Today, I’m practicing at the conservatory, as I do every day after the group rehearsal. The orchestra will tour again in the spring. We’ll go around Europe this time, playing Bach and Vivaldi and Holst. London, Paris, Berlin. As first chair violinist, I must play everything right, everything perfect. Though I already know all the music well, it is not enough. I have to breathe it, too. It has to sink into my skin, into my memory, so I will never ever forget it, a sweet perfume that lingers on and overtakes all my senses.

  When Stuart walks in, I rest my violin on my knee and smile at him. Dear, sweet Stuart who brought me into the orchestra’s fold five years ago. He’s ten years older than I am and would like nothing more than to marry me. Which he has told me on more than one occasion. But I laugh and pretend as though I believe him to be joking, though we both know he’s not. You’re an old soul, he told me once, as if trying to explain away our age difference. It was only then that I’d thought: Maybe Stuart really does know me?

  “Hanna,” he says now. “You have a friend here to see you.”

  My world in New York City is a bubble. Rehearsal and practice. I live alone in a one-bedroom apartment in Greenwich Village, and though I am friendly with nearly everyone in the orchestra, I wouldn’t call any of them dear friends. Only Stuart. And it’s only because he thinks he loves me, thinks he understands me. “It must be some mistake,” I tell him, bringing the violin back to my chin.

  “No mistake,” Stuart says. “He asked for Hanna. He said the ‘girl who plays violin like fire.’” Stuart laughs. His eyes crinkle. He is both amused and stricken by the accuracy of the description.

  Once, so many years ago, when I was insisting I would have to give it all up, that I had ruined everything, Max had told me that I would have other auditions. Other orchestras. And you can’t give up, he’d told me. You play the violin like fire, Hanna. You can’t give up on your fire.

  Praise

  Praise for In Another Time

  “In Another Time returns readers to the place for which Jillian Cantor is known and adored: the heroism and heartbreak of the Second World War. . . . With her bracing prose and unflinching eye, Cantor catches us up in the sweep of history and reminds us of the interminable power of the human bond and the moments that can last a lifetime.”

  —Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan’s Tale

  “Jillian Cantor’s In Another Time is a love song to the most powerful of all human emotions: hope. It is the story of Max and Hanna, two star-crossed lovers fighting to stay together during an impossible moment in history. It is gripping, mysterious, romantic, and altogether unique. I was enchanted by this beautiful, heartbreaking novel.”

  —Ariel Lawhon, author of I Was Anastasia

  “In Another Time is a stunning testament to the power of books, music, and love, and how they can endure, and ultimately prevail, during calamitous times.”

  —Fiona Davis, national bestselling author of The Masterpiece

  “In Another Time is a spellbinding story about the power of love and the strength of the human spirit. . . . A stunning, transporting novel.”

  —Chanel Cleeton, author of Next Year in Havana

  “In Another Time is a beautifully written, utterly romantic story about a love that transcends time. The sort of book you wish could never end.”

  —PopSugar

  “Cantor elevates love as a powerful force . . . and shows how music speaks to even the cruelest hearts. [In Another Time is] a powerful story that exalts the strength of the human spirit.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  Praise for The Lost Letter

  “A total page-turner.”

  —New York Magazine

  “[A]t the center of the novel are two beautiful love stories involving two seemingly star-crossed couples, whose love overcomes all obstacles. . . . Getting it right is an art, and Cantor is an artist. She got me from that first page, and I stayed hooked throughout. It’s not just that Cantor kept me interested—she got me involved emotionally with the story.”

  —Jerusalem Post

  Praise for Margot

  “Inventive. . . . Cantor’s what-if story combines historical fiction with mounting suspense and romance, but above all, it is an ode to the adoration and competition between sisters.”

  —O, the Oprah Magazine

  “A convincing, engaging might-have-been. Francophiles will want to dig in.”

  —People

  “Intriguing . . . with compelling sensitivity.”

  —USA Today

  “A page-turner. . . . A wishful, thought-provoking love story.”

  —Bust magazine

  “A thoughtful speculation about postwar life.”

  —Kansas City Star

  “If Huffington Post Books gave a star rating system for books, Margot deserves five bold stars.”

  —HuffPost

  Praise for The Hours Count

  “[A] down-to-the-wire thriller.”

  —New York Times Book Review

  “We kind of love historical novels, and Cantor’s is quickly climbing to the top of our all-time faves list. . . . You won’t be able to put it down.”

  —Glamour

  “Cantor mixes fact with fiction to create a moving portrait of two of the most vilified figures in modern history.”

  —Cosmopolitan

  Also by Jillian Cantor

  In Another Time

  The Lost Letter

  The Hours Count

  Margot

  Searching for Sky

  The Transformation of Things

  The Life of Glass

  The September Sisters

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
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  HALF LIFE. Copyright © 2021 by Jillian Cantor. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  P.S.TM is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.

  Cover design by Sarah Brody

  Cover photographs © Magdalena Russocka/Trevillion Images (woman); © lupengyu/Getty Images (Eiffel Tower); © Alexander Spatari/Getty Images (buildings)

  Title page image © Lamio/stock.adobe.com

  FIRST EDITION

  Digital Edition MARCH 2021 ISBN: 978-0-06-296989-7

  Version 01302021

  Print ISBN: 978-0-06-296988-0 (pbk.)

  Print ISBN: 978-0-06-296987-3 (library edition)

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