Naomi Alderman's tale is of Lucretius, author of a 2000 year old poem that theorised about atoms and the natural world. Written in the first century BCE, during a chaotic and frightening time when the Roman Republic was collapsing, Lucretius encouraged people to feel free through contemplating the physics of the Universe. Naomi learns that many of the theories still hold water today and that the poem, De Rerum Natura, is an epic beautiful and persuasive piece of work.