The Maternal Element
Will be published approx. on 15. June 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-1-78463-399-8 (ISBN)
Description
Siberia 1833.
Forty-one-year-old Maria Mendeleeva is enduring her seventeenth pregnancy. Her husband Ivan has lost his sight, and her brother Vasily has left their grandfather's glass factory in ruins. The factory Maria hungered for as a child. On the brink of poverty and her family's only remaining hope, Maria must find a way to make the factory viable. She must find the power to bring her grandfather's dreams back to life. She must make the glass sing.
The Maternal Element is a sweeping, gripping epic with an extraordinary woman at its heart. Maria Mendeleeva - mother of Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table of the Elements - is a heroine like no other. A woman who refuses to be quashed by circumstance, Maria fights against the strictures of her time to gain an education for herself and for her children as she traverses the Urals of Russia seeking opportunity and safety for her family. A vivid and visceral portrait of a woman history has long since forgotten, The Maternal Element is a manifesto for truth, female empowerment and defying societal expectations.
Forty-one-year-old Maria Mendeleeva is enduring her seventeenth pregnancy. Her husband Ivan has lost his sight, and her brother Vasily has left their grandfather's glass factory in ruins. The factory Maria hungered for as a child. On the brink of poverty and her family's only remaining hope, Maria must find a way to make the factory viable. She must find the power to bring her grandfather's dreams back to life. She must make the glass sing.
The Maternal Element is a sweeping, gripping epic with an extraordinary woman at its heart. Maria Mendeleeva - mother of Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table of the Elements - is a heroine like no other. A woman who refuses to be quashed by circumstance, Maria fights against the strictures of her time to gain an education for herself and for her children as she traverses the Urals of Russia seeking opportunity and safety for her family. A vivid and visceral portrait of a woman history has long since forgotten, The Maternal Element is a manifesto for truth, female empowerment and defying societal expectations.
Reviews / Votes
Four great historical novels to read in June Rich in detail and drama, The Maternal Element resurrects in colourful prose the life of a remarkable, undeservedly forgotten woman. -- Nick Rennison * The Sunday Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
344 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78463-399-8 (9781784633998)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Kate Nicholls was born in the UK in 1954. Raised in a theatrical family, she had a successful acting career but gave it up to study evolutionary biology. She raised and homeschooled her five children while researching lions in the Okavango Delta. A passionate believer in liberal arts education she founded a homeschool company in 2011. She lives happily in Rome where she studies, teaches and writes overlooking the Tiber. She is the author of Under the Camelthorn Tree (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2019).