This is a brilliant, brilliant novel.

When we first meet Elizabeth Zott, she is a star, the host of the popular cooking show Supper at Six. But she is deeply unhappy. Why?

She seems to have it all: she is fiercely intelligent, a true beauty, and she has the sharpest wit. However, this is the 1960s, America, where women’s roles were firmly in the kitchen – not in science labs where Elizabeth Zott most feels at home.

Elizabeth is a brilliant scientist seemingly born in the wrong era. The narrative goes back in time, and we see the way Elizabeth, working in the science department at a university, is permanently pushed back and thought of as a secretary. She is struggling to fulfil her dreams of being a respected research chemist because of the misogyny that surrounds her.

She has some good fortune. She falls in love with Calvin Evans, the famed, prize-winning chemist. Their love is mutual, they have great respect for one another. Their relationship becomes ground for discussion – Elizabeth’s motives for dating Calvin are called into question by gossiping academics at the university, and the plot thickens. Tragedy sadly ensues and Elizabeth digs deep for the strength she needs. Her dog (named ‘Six Thirty’ because that is the time she found and adopted the animal before teaching him to read) shares his thoughts in delightfully quirky moments.

It’s an intelligent concept with brilliantly observed characters, a book with extremely well-deserved praise. Lessons in Chemistry is a novel worth a place on everybody’s bookshelves. It is an example of a story we are so grateful to have been published.

Lessons in Chemistry was published by Doubleday earlier this month. My copy was kindly sent to me (on my request) from the publisher.