“If I could have dreamed it,” author Bonnie Garmus said, “I wouldn’t have dreamed it quite this big.”
Speaking on the phone from her home in London, the 65-year-old former Seattleite is living a writer’s dream. Her acclaimed debut novel “Lessons in Chemistry,” published last spring, has spent 41 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list for hardcover fiction, as of the March 5 list, and recently sold its 1 millionth copy in all formats. An Apple TV+ adaptation, starring Academy Award-winner Brie Larson, has been filmed and will likely air later this year.
Although she’s lived overseas for 12 years (due to a corporate transfer for her husband’s work), Garmus is a frequent visitor who considers Seattle home; the couple still own their Madrona house and spend Christmases here with family.
Taking place in early 1960s California, “Lessons in Chemistry” focuses on Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist frustrated by workplace sexism who unexpectedly finds herself hosting a cooking show. Although it’s Garmus’ publishing debut, it’s not her first novel: Garmus calls it “my 2.5.” Despite working full time as a copywriter and creative director, she wrote half a book in Seattle, years ago — “I knew it wasn’t going anywhere, so I stopped doing that” — and then another book while living in Switzerland. Determined to find a publisher for that book, a 700-page epic, Garmus submitted it to nearly a hundred agents. No. 98 was the first to write back, sending a “really harsh email” admonishing her for writing a book of such length.