Breaking Through
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  • Published: 7 December 2023
  • ISBN: 9781529936957
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $36.99
Categories:

Breaking Through

My Life In Science

Formats & editions
Paperback
10 Jun 2025
EBook
7 Dec 2023
Audiobook
7 Dec 2023
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How one woman's determination saved millions of lives: an extraordinary memoir from the Winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine

Katalin Karikó began life as a butcher’s daughter in post-war Communist Hungary: a hand-to-mouth existence in a single-room house of clay and straw with no running water. Breaking Through is her extraordinary memoir of how she achieved her dream of becoming a scientist, first in Hungary and then in the USA, and pursued her belief – despite so many telling her not to – that an elusive molecule could transform our ability to prevent disease. For three decades she worked in obscurity, battling cockroaches in a windowless lab, enduring demotion, the derision of her colleagues, even threats of deportation. But in 2020, Karikó’s vision was spectacularly vindicated when her work led to the production of the vaccines that brought an end to the pandemic. As frank, wise and fearless as Karikó herself, Breaking Through is a remarkable story of tenacity, friendship and loyalty, and one woman’s unshakeable commitment to her values.
  • Published: 7 December 2023
  • ISBN: 9781529936957
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $36.99
Categories:

About the author

Katalin Karikó

Katalin Karikó is a biochemist and winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Her pioneering research was the foundation of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 and paves the way for a host of breakthrough treatments for HIV, malaria and other life-threatening diseases. Born in Hungary, she has lived and worked for most of her adult life in the USA. Since 2020, she has been awarded over a hundred prizes in recognition of her work; two children’s books have been written about her and a minor planet named after her. Now an honorary professor at numerous universities around the world, she continues in her work to advance new medical treatments where the need is most urgent. She and her husband Béla are the parents of two-time Olympic rowing champion Susan Francia.

Praise for Breaking Through

A riveting testament to resilience and the power of unwavering belief

JENNIFER DOUDNA, Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry

The rousing story of a remarkable woman and her lifesaving contributions to medicine

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

An outstanding memoir with a happy ending

KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED)

Few have overcome adversity like Karikó ... This remarkable memoir ... is a joy to read

FINANCIAL TIMES

A classic in the genre of underdogs succeeding against the odds

NEW SCIENTIST

Little did the public know that this feat [a Covid vaccine] was largely down to one woman's relentless perseverance. Breaking Through ... charts the painstaking journey she undertook as a woman and an immigrant to convince the scientific community to take her work seriously ... rich with colourful metaphors that bring the immune system to life ... Karikó also lays bare a startling truth: even life-saving scientific discovery is not immune to ego, favouritism and sexism

NEW STATESMAN

Describes her vital, sometimes moving, personal and scientific struggle for success

NATURE, Five of the Best Science Books for 2024

[The] engrossing, touching tale ... of a scientist now recognised as one of the world’s greatest ... a vividly written, absorbing memoir

GUARDIAN

It is almost impossible not to feel moved by this story of an extraordinarily resilient woman

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

Karikó’s remarkable journey from childhood in a politically suspect butcher’s family on the plains of postwar Hungary to winning a Nobel Prize for medicine last year is a joy to read

FINANCIAL TIMES, *Summer Reads of 2024*

Will make you laugh, think and maybe even readjust the way you see the world

KATJA HOYER

Karikó's story is an inspiration

BILL GATES

Riveting. A true story of a brilliant biochemist who never gave up or gave in.

BONNIE GARMUS
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