Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - 61

BOOK REVIEW by M. Nicole Nazzaro
Tough Stuff
STARSTRUCK: A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the Dark
Sarafina El-Badry Nance
Dutton, 2023
325 pages, ISBN 978-0-593-18679-4
US$29.00, hardcover
DELVING INTO Starstruck: A Memoir
of Astrophysics and Finding Light in
the Dark is a bit like gazing at a stellar
nursery. We can admire the Orion
Nebula for what it is and yet know that
the tendrils of gas we're observing will
eventually give way to swirling masses
as gravity pulls the material together.
Atom by atom, a shimmering star will
emerge from the maelstrom. It will be a
long process, but because we understand
astrophysics, we know what's coming,
and we know it will be beautiful.
So it is with this tender and complicated
story of an astrophysicist coming
of age. Sarafina El-Badry Nance, a PhD
candidate at the University of California,
Berkeley, has penned a memoir of a
young scientist-in-training challenged
by struggles both internal and external.
El-Badry Nance's journey is by
turns inspiring and harrowing. We
root for her as she anchors her life in
the sciences while the world around
her offers both encouragement and
hostility, sometimes with breathtaking
whiplash. A gentle elementary-school
teacher shows her how to observe the
differences in trees, even as she has
to lose herself in Harry Potter books
to keep from focusing on her parents'
loud arguments at night. A high-school
teacher nurtures her budding love of the
universe, while her family struggles so
mightily with finances that at one point
she's left to fend for herself while her
parents pursue jobs in other cities.
As the world disappoints and even
betrays her, El-Badry Nance stays on
her feet. She pursues astrophysics as a
profession even when the
equations are endless and
the concepts mentally
exhausting. She keeps
looking up at the sky. And
we, her readers, cheer for
her. We want this story to
turn out well. We want to
see the nebula transform
into a star.
The book's cover places
El-Badry Nance literally
among the stars. You
open the book expecting
triumph after triumph, but this story
goes to some dark places. I don't want to
give too much away here. The narrative
deserves an audience that stays with ElBadry
Nance as she lurches from gazing
at the heavens to navigating a world of
troubles, to finding her way back again
and again, the stars lighting the path
that guides her.
The depths of the challenges this
young investigator experiences as she
matures make us cheer her on - and
yet the reading can be infuriating,
because the adults around her are often
At its core, Starstruck is a
memoir of how scientific inquiry
parallels life.
too mired in their own problems to
safeguard her. The parent in me wants
to protect her. The reader in me wants
her to win every battle.
Still, El-Badry Nance perseveres,
and the portrait that emerges is one of
resilience. I want to recommend this
book to your teenage, astronomy-loving
kids, but with a caveat: Prepare for
some tough conversations with them
about experiencing racism, growing up
with unhappy parents,
leaving abusive romantic
relationships, identifying
and fighting back against
sexual harassment in the
workplace, and making
life-changing decisions
in the face of devastating
medical diagnoses.
Our greatest instinct as
parents is to shield our
children from the world's
disappointments and
disasters, but by giving
them examples of resilience, we can
help them light their own path. This
book does just that.
At its core, Starstruck is a memoir
of how scientific inquiry parallels life.
El-Badry Nance finds meaning in the
formation of black holes, the explosions
of supernovae, and the reality of recognizing
how tiny we all are in the vast
universe. It is a story of hope bolstered
by the promise of scientific exploration,
for in the end it will be cutting-edge science
that provides her with a lifeline.
When she discovers she carries a
genetic mutation that all but guarantees
a cancer diagnosis, she moves ahead
with a medical intervention that no
young person should ever have to decide
upon. But here is the future El-Badry
Nance becoming one of the adults that
should have protected her as a child,
embracing her scientific abilities, trusting
the data, and moving forward into
a life filled with promise. The author is
at her best in these pages when she faces
this most traumatic of moments. The
star emerges. Science delivers its promise.
This is a big and challenging book,
and one worthy of your time.
¢ NICOLE NAZZARO is a writer based in
Edmonds, Washington.
sk yand tele scope .o r g * FEBRUARY 2024 61
http://skyandtelescope.org
Sky & Telescope - February 2024

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