Lessons in Chemistry

Lessons in Chemistry is a novel by Bonnie Garmus. Published by Doubleday in April 2022, the novel is Garmus's debut novel. It tells the story of Elizabeth Zott, who becomes a beloved cooking show host in 1960s Southern California after being fired as a chemist a decade earlier. The book was adapted to an Apple TV+ miniseries that debuted on 13 October 2023. Background Lessons in Chemistry comes after nearly 100 rejections of prior works by Garmus. The publishing rights to the book were auctioned. The book was originally called "Introduction to Chemistry", but was later renamed by the author's agent, Felicity Blunt. The book was inspired by Garmus's own experience of her work as a creative director in an advertising agency, in particular after a frustrating meeting in which a male co-worker took credit for one of her ideas. During the writing, Garmus was a full time copywriter and self-studied chemist, attempting experiments from the The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments. Garmus said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that "the fire department had to come twice for the amount of flames in my flat". The author also adapted her own interest in rowing as a hobby of the protagonist, Zott. Aside from rowing, Garmus said that she doesn't share other commonalities with the Zott, instead claiming to have written her "role model". The rights for a film adaptation were sold by auction. Prior to the auction, the eventual winner, Brie Larson, video called the author asking for her permission. Garmus claimed in an interview to have given minimal input to the script writing and production of the TV adaption.