I found this a very valuable title, one that I'll be recommending to others who are interested in seeing beyond Einstein the scientists to Einstein the humanitarian and social critic.

Who knew that Alber Einstein was so personable? As an Icon in history, we tend to write our icons as geniuses, with dry wit and larger than life unattainable characteristics, or the opposite with low-level characteristics which makes them seem mad. This book humanized Mr. Einstein. His humor was not dry, his personality, although quirky, reminded me more of Samuel Clemens than say, what has been portrayed of Einstein in the past. This book is pure historical fiction and yet, reads as an autobiography. I enjoyed R.J. Gadney's writing style. It is what makes the book the fun to read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Canogate for the eARC. However, this review deals with the published edition, as that is what I ended up reading.

Albert Einstein Speaking is a novelization do the life of Albert Einstein. I found the style of this book somewhat odd, but I’m not entirely sure why. Overall, I found the first and last chapters, the final years of Einstein’s life, to be the most interesting. Not my favorite biographical novel.

Albert Einstein Speaking begins with a wrong number dialed by 17-year-old Mimi Beaufort in Princeton, who finds herself speaking to the most famous scientist in the world on his 75th birthday. Einstein likes her voice and tells her to call back. Then he begins dictating correspondence and random thoughts to his secretary, reflecting on war, the horrible treatment of Jews in Germany, the horrible treatment of blacks in America, and his own inadequacies as a parent and husband.

A story that begins as fiction and quickly transitions to a fictional autobiography soon becomes a biography. It briefly recounts Einstein’s life from childhood (his mother thought he was a strange boy who would amount to nothing), with little touches that foreshadow the man he would become (including his awe and fear of the mysterious forces that prevented him from tricking his compass to point in a direction other than north, his first inkling that “there’s something behind things, something deeply hidden”). Later he confronts antisemitism at a Catholic school. It’s no wonder he preferred the glory of his own mind to an educational system that was nothing but a distraction from intellect.

We follow Einstein through his career (first in the patent office and later in various academic positions), his relationships, his battles with anti-Semites in the European scientific establishment, and his remarkable ability to make deductions about how the world works. We learn that he is a terrible husband and not much of a father but hey, he’s Einstein, he doesn’t have time for conventional ways of living.

The story emphasizes how Einstein was belittled, and his theory of relativity mocked, because he was Jewish. Later in life we get a glimpse of his regret for suggesting to Roosevelt that he pursue an atomic bomb, and learn that Einstein was not immune to the FBI’s misguided pursuit of communists during the age of McCarthyism.

Most of the story consists of one abbreviated event following another. In fact, Albert Einstein Speaking often reads like an abbreviated biography that lists facts while minimizing context or analysis. Pages and pages go by without a hint that the book is a work of fiction, so resolutely does it recount Einstein’s travels, lectures, letters, meetings, and decisions. That doesn’t mean the book lacks interest, but it isn’t what a reader expects from a novel. Only when the story returns to Mimi does the book really come alive.

Albert Einstein Speaking reminds us that closed minds will happily reject the rigors of scientific inquiry when inquiry leads to results that get in the way of politics or prejudices (not that a reminder is needed, given the prevalence of global warming deniers). An openness to inquiry and free thought is an openness to people, and hence a rejection of racism, of religious prejudice, and of all notions of national superiority or exceptionalism. Humility and compassion on a global scale were Einstein’s great virtues, apart from his intellect. The virtue of Albert Einstein Speaking is its reminder that true genius lies in learning how to live harmlessly, in harmony with nature and with all the people who are not us.

Albert Einstein Speaking by R. J. Gadney shares a very interesting piece of history. I've always been interested in Albert Einstein - maybe it was the wild hair at first - and read many books (history, novels and historical fiction), and watched many documentaries; one being the recent PBS mini series Genius. There is always something new to learn or at least another viewpoint to experience. This did not disappoint. Thank you #netgalley #alberteinsteinspeaking and #canongate

3.5>3
“‘A new toy for me, a new toy for me,’ Albert exclaims when he first sees his little sister Maria, familiarly known as Maja, on 18 November 1881. ‘Where are the wheels?’”

Typical little boy, right? But in so many other things. Albert Einstein was not typical. This fictionalised biography, if I can call it that, explores many of his own papers and those of others who have written about one of the most famous men in the world.

I think my reading of this was somewhat spoiled by having watched the remarkable 10-episode television series, GENIUS-Einstein, on the National Geographic Channel. It’s the same life, so of course the biography has covered the same ground.

Much of it was reporting of the facts, interspersed with imagined dialogue amongst the characters (as in the TV series), but because so much was quoted directly from diaries, letters, papers, and reports, I found it jarring when it changed to family arguments and romantic conversations. It’s hard to know where the facts are and where the supposition is.

Einstein made some of the quotations attributed to him in the dialogue, but I don’t think they’ve all been confirmed as coming from him. I imagine most readers are aware of all the memes and posts shared with famous sayings, followed by “Albert Einstein” (or Mark Twain, to name another to whom clever remarks are often attributed.) I followed the trail of one in the book that I doubted was his, and it seems it probably wasn’t. I’m afraid a book like this will just continue to perpetuate the myth.

But the facts as they are, or were, seem reliable. We have plenty of evidence as to where he lived and when, the professional rivalries, the women, the single-mindedness of his passion for science, and his rather self-centred behaviour when he was absorbed in a topic. This friends, fellow scientists, and teachers all feature here.

He had a terrible time in school and obeying rules. He loved study and reading, but he insisted on arguing (if he attended class), and most of his teachers found him impossible. EXCEPT, there were scientists who recognised his brilliance. Not this fellow. [I don’t know if this is a true conversation or quotation, but I think it represents some of the attitudes of his teachers well.]

“‘You’re a disruptive influence,’ the professor says.
‘Of course I’m disruptive. I don’t approve of your educational methods.’
‘Then leave.’
‘You don’t want to hear my arguments?’
‘I do not.’
‘Your reluctance makes my point.’”

How many students have faced this stubbornness on the part of teachers? Our vet, many years ago, decided to become a medical doctor, for people. [When I asked if it would be any harder, he said that it wouldn’t, because we are just another animal and remarkably like the pig. But I digress.]

When they got to the topic of zoonoses, the diseases that are transmissible between animals and humans (such as Ebola and salmonella), he approached the lecturer and offered to give a talk from his veterinarian’s viewpoint. No thanks, said the professor. My notes and course are all set. I would add that the professor’s reluctance makes the point that people get comfortably set in their routines and won’t budge.

The book opens with the phone call referred to in the publicity, where a young high school student rings Einstein’s phone number by mistake, and he, who loves kids and their enthusiasm, continues the conversation and invites future contact. We don’t hear much of her again until much later in the book, which is a section I enjoyed very much. He’s old and fading, she and her younger sister (young women now) play the violin (as does he), and often visit and play for him.

The love stories (more than one, he did like the ladies) and the family photographs are excellent, and the naughty (naked ladies!) postcards Elsa used to send him show that he was far more than an eccentric with his mind in the heavens, although it often was.

He was a passionate champion for the Jews, who have been persecuted pretty much everywhere pretty much forever. His opinion was that while almost every land on earth has Jews, who are often successful, they are a relatively small proportion of the population, making them an easy scapegoat for whatever is going wrong. So he was thrilled with the establishment of a homeland in Israel.

There's also quite a bit about his agony over the atom bombs dropped on Japan, since it was his work that made the bombs possible. I'd like to quote his thoughts, (as I usually quote from books), but I hesitate to do so here unless I know it’s a direct quotation from his letters. I don't know how much is poetic, or author's, licence!

If you know very little about the man who changed the world, you’d enjoy this. If you’re already familiar with his story, I don’t think this will add much.

The author died recently, May 2018, and here are a couple of interesting obituaries of another interesting man. I see that he wrote screenplays, and in many ways, I think this tells his story like that. Perhaps that’s why I enjoyed the television series more.

https://canongate.co.uk/news/a-tribute-to-r.j-gadney/ [from his publisher]
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/may/10/reg-gadney-obituary [The Guardian]

Thanks to NetGalley and Canongate for the opportunity to read a preview copy. I think it will do a lot to humanise a man who was a real character as well as a genius.

This book was in no way what I excepted. I liked it mostly because I feel like I learned a lot about Albert Einstein. I liked it because it had a lot of German in there. However, this book was not how they summary describes it to be. So if you are expecting it to be a young woman conversation with an elderly Einstein. Maybe a little foolish like me and thinking the it was a young woman from the future holding a conversation with an elderly Einstein you will be wrong. It is not like that. It is mostly reading of his life from birth forward. How he was a curious child, almost a heartless man, loveless father, brilliant, among other things. The start of this book is exactly as the summary describes which is perfect then it falls into basically a biography of Einstein. I feel like the author should have stuck to one of the two things. I really liked the book at first then the more it got into the biography aspect the more I started to dislike the book and the more difficult it was for me to read it. I liked learning about Einstein some aspects were very interesting but it was still very difficult to move forward. There were a lot of aspects of the knowledge of Einstine that was shared that was hard for me to follow maybe because science isn't my strong point maybe because some of it was just unnecessary information.

I found this book very puzzling. I'm not keen on fictionalised biographies but it seemed intriguing to start with - sadly, that effect dwindled rapidly. The writing style began as quite engaging but the dialogue, short paragraphs and disjointed time line became irritating. It appears that the author was a screenwriter and it could certainly be visualised as a film. He had clearly done a good deal of research but I didn't feel that Einstein was brought to life as more than a caricature and I didn't understand the author's intention at all.

(Thanks to Canongate and Netgalley for an ARC.)

Though this is a work of fiction it reads like a biography of Albert Einstein's life. I found it enjoyable and a light read. I would recommend it if you are interested in Einstein and his life.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

When the best thing you can say about a book is "At least there weren't bad sex scenes...", it's problematic.

Part cutesy novel, part biography, R. J. Gadney's <a href="https://amzn.to/2MwlroX" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Albert Einstein Speaking</em></a> explores the remarkable life of Albert Einstein, with the addition of a schoolgirl, Mimi, who accidentally dials his number.

Mimi's friendship with Einstein bookends biographical information and because of this, Gadney runs into strife. The friendship is unconventional and I assume provides a little whimsy to Einstein's story but Gadney's writing style in these sections contrasts to the biographical section of the book.

The bulk of the story is biographical - we learn about Einstein's career, his fraught relationships, his politics and the odd quirky bit of trivia. Unfortunately, Gadney info-dumps and there is so much specific detail to time and place stamp the book that anything remotely emotive in the story is lost.
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>How kind to me were the residents of Ulm who intended to name a street after me. Instead, the Nazis named it Fichtestrasse after Fichte, whose works Hitler read, and who was read by other Nazis like Dietrich Eckart and Arnold Fanck. After the war, it was renamed Einsteinstrasse.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Albert spends his summer in Zürich at 116 Hofstrasse, a grandiose building with views of the lake and the Alps. The family takes trips on the paddle-steamer Stadt Rapperswil, built by Escher, Wyss &amp; C. for the Zürich-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft.</em></p>
See what I mean about info-dumping? I don't need to know who made the paddle-steamer - it adds nothing to my understanding of Einstein as a person. Far more interesting was Einstein the pacifist, the music-lover, the ladies-man, the crummy father, the philanthropist.

Overall, this book was disappointing. I feel like Gadney should have either written a biography or taken more creative license with an historical fictional angle.

I received my copy of <em>Albert Einstein Speaking</em> from the publisher, Canongate, via <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/135603" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NetGalley</a>, in exchange for an honest review.

1.5/5 If you're interested in Einstein, read a biography. Or watch this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsiU2_PaSTQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">clip</a>.

I’m not certain what this book is. It is described as a novel, a work of fiction, but it seems to be a biography of Albert Einstein. It even has actual photos included! The only fictional element seems to be Mimi Beaufort, a 17-year-old girl who accidentally dials Einstein’s phone number.

The book opens promisingly. Mimi misdials and ends up reaching Einstein on the day of his 75th birthday. They chat very briefly and end with promises to talk again. The first chapter even has touches of humour: Einstein tells his secretary, “’When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity.’” This beginning suggests I can expect to read what the publisher described: “From their first conversation Mimi Beaufort had a profound effect on Einstein and brought him, in his final years, back to life. In turn he let her into his world.” A “riotous, charming and moving novel” is promised, but what the reader gets is a poorly-written biography of the famous scientist. The reader has to plow through 75% of the book before Mimi actually shows up again! And since Mimi supposedly speaks to Einstein on March 14, 1954, and Einstein died 13 months later, on April 17, 1955, how can Mimi have had a profound influence on his final years?

Even if this were a biography, it has so many unnecessary details. When Albert moves, we are told, “The three-room apartment is at Wittelsbacherstraße 13 in a well-to-do neighbourhood near Fehrbelliner Platz. He has a telephone number, Berlin 2807.” When Albert takes trips on the lake in Zürich, the reader gets the ships provenance: “The family takes trips on the paddle-steamer Stadt Rapperswil, built by Escher, Wyss & C. for the Zürich-Schifffahrtsgesellchaft.” When Einstein encounters any fellow scientist, that person’s accomplishments are enumerated: “Lorentz shared the 1902 Nobel Prize with his fellow Dutchman Pieter Zeeman for the discovery of the Zeeman effect: ‘in recognition of the extraordinary service they rendered by their researches into the influence of magnetism upon radiation phenomena’.” We are informed that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated with a “blowback-operated, semi-automatic FN Model 1910 Browning pistol, manufactured by Fabrique Nationale in Belgium.” This is essential information in a biography of Einstein? We are given the list of Albert and Elsa’s shopping: “red cabbage, goat fat and kippered herring. Bottles of essence of lily of the valley.” Then there are geography lessons: “Albert lectures in Sendal, northeast of Tokyo on Honshu island; in Nikko, in the mountains north of Tokyo; in Nagoya, in the Chūbu region; in Kyoto, and in Fukuoka on the northern shore of Japan’s Kyushu island.” And do we really need to know that Elsa rummages in her handbag “for her phials of aromatic perfumes: Aventure, with its notes of cedar wood, amber and pink pepper, Linde Berlin, which evokes Berlin’s famously fragrant linden trees, and Violet, based on a perfume created for Marlene Dietrich” ? This type of extraneous detail is found throughout and to say it becomes tedious is an understatement.

The style is very disjointed. Sentences are strung together without connection: “The 16,500-ton Red Star Line’s SS Westernland sails from Antwerp with Elsa and Helen Dukas aboard. An unmarked police car deposits Albert on the Southampton quayside . . . ” Try to make sense of these consecutive sentences: “In the summer they take a holiday on Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Mountains. The doctor administers morphine. Else tries to knit a scarf.” And then there is needless repetition. The information that “Mimi and Isabella might dream of studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Unfortunately there are insufficient funds to enable them to do so” is followed by “They’ve learned that there are no funds available to meet the Royal Academy of Music’s tuition fees, travel and accommodation expenses.”

At times, things that are mentioned make no sense. Einstein suffers from “violent diarrhoea” but is told to drink water and to exercise “to stimulate his bowel movements”? The passage of time is not clearly delineated so confusion results. For example, the reader is told that “Mileva suffers a nervous breakdown and is confined in the Zürich Theodosianum Parkseite Klinik.” Three sentences later, we are told that “Mileva and Tete are confined in the Bethanien Klinik in Zürich – Mileva with chronic nerve pressure on her spine.”

As I stated at the beginning, I’m not certain what this book is trying to be. In actuality it seems like an unrevised rough draft. According to promotional material for the book, Ian McEwan has stated that R. J. Gadney, “has conjured, with an accomplished novelist's art, a strange and luminous fiction, a literary gem.” I’m a great admirer of Ian McEwan’s writing, but he and I definitely disagree about the quality of this book.

Note: I received a digital galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

'His curiosity constantly gets the best of him.'

I thought I knew quite a bit about Albert Einstein, boy was I wrong. While Albert and Mimi Beaufort impact each other’s lives after she dials a wrong number (or right, according to Einstein), this is far more a story about Einstein’s life from his birth to his death. Born with a misshapen head, according to his mother, it’s funny just how important that ‘head’ one day becomes. Different from the beginning (his parents fearing he may be dumb) Einstein is curious, and it is this curiosity, this rebellious soul that inspires him to be a force in history. While his genius is exciting and inspiring, his personal life saddened me quite a bit. There is a coldness in how he treated his first wife, Mileva and the audacity of a contract seemed like such a cruelty, one that certainly wouldn’t go over well in present day! To have gone from such strong adoration and love for her to this calculated behavior just goes to show you can love the entire world, be kind and curious of people from all walks of life, because he was certainly engaging, and yet have a wreck of a personal life. How much more it must have hurt that he was so beloved and kind, yet to her he was nothing of the sort in the end. Albert was a man of many secrets, a ladies man too! Mileva certainly wasn’t the first heart he pulverized. Before her, there was Marie Winteler who was getting too serious for Albert’s tastes. He knew his life was to be science, that was all that was occupying his mind and it would be unfair to lead dear Marie on (well more than he already had, his flames cool on a whim it seems). So science it is and Mileva, whom he was once enthralled by, recognizing in her a like-minded soul. The devastation in Mileva’s life is that she was on the path of scientist as well, only to be eclipsed by her husband, becoming only Mrs. Einstein. Is it so shocking she became such a ‘drag’ on poor Albert? Maybe because I am a woman I sympathize with what he put her through, rather than feeling sorry for Albert. The beginning of their love is beautiful, in spite of his mother’s disapproval he married Mileva and there is no denying that their passion was once genuine. If she succumbed to jealousy or disappointment that her life lost all possibility (academically, career) while his flourished, how much can we fault a woman who tolerated his cruel side and raised their children. It’s possible too the loss of her first, their secret child, had taken it’s toul on her spirit. One of his son succumbing to severe mental illness, she too was the one handling it all. His eldest son Hans and Albert too were often estranged. It’s known that many great men and women show a different face to their own children, spouses. A shame, a sad thing to learn of a great man. So he was human and flawed. I remember whisperings that Mileva helped him with his proofs which has also been disputed, who knows, she was certainly an intelligent woman by her own right. She remained to mother his children, cast off, as he conquered the world. How could one not feel compassion in her place?

So on to his first cousin Elsa, whose daughter he later has his eye on, tsk tsk old boy! Yes, first cousin, you read that right! Elsa is his chosen one in the end, and their marriage lasted until her death. Too, he was a rascal with professors, or a pain in the…. depends on who you ask. All this womanizing while hobnobbing with the most famous and important people of the times, naturally he was admired by many for his brilliance. His genius cannot be denied, despite his sometimes less than stellar behavior. It is well-known his biggest regret is his involvement in petitioning the atomic bomb, naturally he feared Germany might develop it first, and that guided his decision. Hated by the Nazi’s, renouncing his citizenship and his membership to the Prussian Academy enflames the party. The violence goes against science, is inhumane and undermines everything Einstein stands for. As a Jewish man, naturally he is horrified by the anti-Semitism. That great big head of his, at this point, now has a $5,000 bounty on it, requiring 2 armed officers protecting him. Fearing for the fate of Jewish scientists in Germany, Einstein travels to Chartwell England to visit with Winston Churchill to see what help he can provide. There really isn’t anyone, it seems, that Albert didn’t rub elbows with! His fight is against those that would suppress intellectual and individual freedom, his voice is great and he isn’t one to cower from a fight. His Jewish activism was just as important to him as being a scientific revolutionist.

It’s amazing how much happened during his time, in a century dominated by science, he was at the top. As much a celebrity as those he met, who often were his fan, he was able to fit in just as perfectly with the likes of movie stars as fellow scientists like Marie Curie. He certainly hated racism, as evidenced by his support for Marian Anderson, one of the most celebrated voices of the twentieth century, who knew he was a bit of a civil rights activist? There were fears, he lost friends to suicide, mental illness rising within his own son and certainly there were many dark moments in the life of this great man. He was always fascinating and lived a rich, fuller life than many of us can even imagine. He wasn’t perfect, who knows if this can be attributed to his genius or simply the strange state of all human beings.

While Mimi is a part of the story, the heart of the novel is Einstein and his incredible life, he was certainly such an interesting creation that I don’t think literature could even invent.

Publication Date: June 22, 2018

Canongate Books

Albert Einstein Speaking starts out as a book where a young girl accidentally calls the infamous scientist Albert Einstein. The impression I got from reading a book starting this way is that some kind of relationship would continue between the young girl and Einstein. However, the rest of the book is a high level biography of Einstein starting with his birth. I think fans of Einstein will like the book, but it was just was not what I expected going in.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As a an admirer (& student) of science, I was immediately drawn in by the title of this book. Albert Einstein is one of the greatest names of our century synonymous with science and progress. More importantly, as demonstrated by this book, it is a name that should be synonymous with bravery and loyalty in the face of brutal radicalism.

In all honesty, I went into this book expecting a short piece of fictitious writing and the sentiment prevailed in the beginning. However, it became abundantly clear in a few pages that this book is in fact a nearly year by year account of the significant events in the life of Dr.Einstein that fashioned him into the man that the world has come to know as well as the ways in which he shaped the modern world around him.

The things I enjoyed about the writing were that it was matter of fact and presented things in short paragraphs. I am not a person who delves into non-fiction often so I found the short-paced recounts tolerable and something I could keep up with. Although at the same time this writing style undertakes the risk of presenting itself as a work in process and is in need of refinement. The accounts of personal history which were at first endearing, later on seemed to be dragging, contributed to in part by the consistent use of the original names of places and people I had no clue how to pronounce (and thus no idea who they were). Perhaps a few footnotes could've been provided to overcome this problem for readers not entirely familiar with German vocabulary and pronunciation. The dedication to authenticity is however remarkable.

The marvelous thing for me when reading this book was how many new things I learned. I've known who Albert Einstein was since a young age (greatest scientist of our age and so on) and heard so many things about him that I never truly felt that I did not know everything there was to know. This book made me realise just how easily we de-humanize our idols and forget that they are people with everyday lives, making mistakes just like us; suffering, just like us.

Did you know Einstein's interest in physics was inspired by a compass? Did you know Einstein had a life full of family problems? Did you know he was wildly persecuted as a Jew by extremists? Did you know he was an adamant supporter of womens' rights and shunned racism? Did you know he enjoyed playing the violin? Did you know he was offered the presidency of Israel? Did you know he was devastated by his involvement in the creation of the First Atomic Bomb but deemed his action a necessity at the time?

Even though I had hoped to be reading something quirky, which the writing is at times, I believe the blurb distracts from the true material of the book. Then again, it sounds better than "this is a semi-detailed account of the life of Albert Einstein which is dry in some parts but picks up a good pace towards the end and might turn out to be quite informative." It took me a while to get through this book (hence the low rating) but I would likely recommend it if somebody's looking to read up on Albert Einstein as a person, without the arduous task of scrolling through copious Google and Wikipedia links. The charming parts help make up for the bits that might slow you down.

Humanising the Icon

Most of us have heard of Albert Einstein, the famous theoretical physicist who changed the face of modern physics when he developed the Theory of Relativity expressed in the formula E= mc2, dubbed “the world’s most famous equation”. And pretty well most of us are in awe of his amazing intelligence, his intellectuality and his numerous achievements. Normal people like me tend to put people like Einstein up on a pedestal.

“Albert Einstein Speaking” reveals that behind the genius the man himself was only too human. Zionist, committed pacifist, socialist, scientist-philosopher, anti-racist, activist, yachtsman, a man of riddles and a musician with a passion for Mozart, he treated his first wife Mileva very badly. His parenting skills left much to be desired and he had an eye for the ladies even unto his deathbed. In other words, he was a fallible human being just like the rest of us!

To a certain extent, he was always a square peg in a round hole, but what I found endearing was that in spite of being famous and universally well known, he always had time for everyone who wanted a bit of him. He loved to travel and adored his second wife Elsa, who predeceased him. One lesser-known fact is that at one time he came under investigation by the FBI who suspected him of communist leanings, but thankfully that file was destroyed. His theory of relativity opened the way, ultimately, to the development of nuclear fission, but all he did was to endorse a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting him to the potential development of such bombs and recommending that the United States begin similar research. This led to the Manhattan Project, and Einstein was totally horrified and disgusted with the results. After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he became even more of a pacifist than he was before.

These facts are all well-known and well documented in the reams of literature written about Einstein, but this entertaining, well-researched, cradle-to-grave biography of an icon puts over the story in a very readable way. The author uses quite a bit of imaginative licence in the text – in places it reads like a novel, and I could have done without some of the more intimate details. Many of his speeches and sayings are quoted verbatim, and from start, to finish, the book is full of photographs. My favourite by far is one of Einstein wobbling on a bicycle with a huge grin on his face!

R.J. Gadney’s book certainly wasn’t what I was expecting, and I can recommend it as a very enjoyable read. I give it 4 stars.

Bennie Bookworm.

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

2.5 stars. Another quick read, but I'm not 100% sure what this book could be categorized as? I thought it fiction when I requested it, and in the beginning it appeared that it would be, especially how the wrong number phone call to Albert Einstein was written. What followed this was a very dry, chronological summary of some of the Einstein's life events, instead of the continuation of what first appeared as a quirky quick story about Einstein.

At first it wasn't bad, it seemed heartwarming in many places, but then....I don't know? Is this non-fiction? An imagined non-fiction based story? It's odd, it's very dry and very straightforward, and while a short and quick read, a confusing one for me as to what genre I was reading, or really, the purpose of this story/book.

This was informative and quirky (if one can use the word to describe a book). At times definitely brought a smile to my face. But overall there were many places I found it somewhat lacking action and pace.

Thank you Canongate Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The beauty of this book is in the writing. The author has an incredible way with words that transforms what might otherwise be a simple biography into a work of literary historical fiction. This book is filled with lavish descriptions. It humanizes the great man in a way that nothing I have ever read about him before has ever done. The science is explained in layman’s terms throughout and becomes amazingly accessible. Einstein’s love of Mozart comes up frequently, as does he constant pipe smoking. Albert’s many famous acquaintances are mentioned in this book from Marie Curie to Freud to Winston Churchill to Charlie Chaplin. The book is also filled with pictures of the people who are mentioned in the text. It helps the reader imagine that they are a fly on the wall watching Albert Einstein’s life unfold. If I had one complaint to make about this book it is the fact that it contains almost too much detail. It is certainly well-researched but it felt at times like certain things could have been edited out. Despite the fact that the book is quite short, and can be easily read in a day, there are parts that feel longer than they needed to be.

Thank you to Net Galley and Canongate for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book.

Grade: A

I tried, but this is a rare time when I just could not get into a book. I enjoyed skimming through the book, but wasn't interested enough in his mistress and other factors to read every word in this book, I enjoy a book with a rich narrative and prose, not just facts.

I tried, but just could NOT get into this... I expected cutesy from the blurb - and was okay with that because I thought it would be a bit of fun fiction about interactions between Einstein and his "wrong number", sprinkled with commentary about his life and times. I did not expect a fully fictionalized biography of his life - and to me, the style felt off for that type of story. There's nothing wrong with it - it's just not to my taste. If I wanted a full-blown bio of Einstein, I'd have picked up the Walter Isaacson book - I was looking for a fun, lighter read, and this just wasn't what I expected.