While, I don’t think this book makes quantum theory very easy to understand (I doubt any book can as there are so many inherent complexities), it does an excellent job of covering Erwin Schrödinger’s personal life and his contribution to physics.

This is an excellent book - the elaboration of his life and work is very vivid and interspersed with the right amount of detail and references. Compared to many others, Schrödinger actually came into his own later – making significant contributions in his thirties and well into his fifties. Some of his personal life – including his tendency to jump in and out of several affairs make for amusing reading. He maintained strange & open relationships very unusual for the times. Though it lacks the women’s perspective, he apparently was able to be honest about his affairs with only one of them turning a little sour. His marriage with Anny did not rupture through all this and they supported each other when they were both old and ailing.

There was a lot of action in theoretical physics in Germany with Einstein, Heisenberg, Planck, Max Born & Schrödinger (separated by a few years in their prime). A lot of the ideas they were seized with, and Schrödinger’s many letter exchanges with Einstein make for fascinating reading. It was also a difficult period with Schrödinger having to enlist in the army during World War I. Later, Hitler coming to power prompted him to leave Germany as he opposed the rising ugly antisemitism. However, after periods of stay in Europe & UK, he was tempted to return to Austria and wrote a conciliatory note, the motivations of which are unclear. This damaged his image in UK, but he was to later move to Scotland after a short stay in Italy where he landed with almost no money and the physicist Fermi bailed him out. Wherever he went, apparently, his students loved his lectures and found it deeply inspiring.

The ‘Schrödinger Cat’ thought experiment is what he is best known for – but it is only after I read this book that I understood the full import of what he was trying to say. In several important areas, the author does well to provide the original correspondence and good explanations. This book also covers other areas Schrödinger contributed to including wave theory, colour theory, genetics, his essays on relativity and even life. He was influenced by philosophy, especially Advaita Vedanta with its message of all being one (arising & being sustained by Brahman) and each of us creating our reality. This he felt was the best expression of the truths of the real world – anything impacting something else affects us, as in some way it is connected to us – ours is a universe of relationships.

I found the book fascinating, and while it does not require a physics degree to read it, some of the material is still complicated (inherently so). This is really an excellent book to learn about Schrödinger’s life and contributions.

The ebook did have a few issues in rendering on Kindle.

An insightful and informative summarised biography on Schrödinger and it's so much fun to read this book.

I was really curious about Schrödinger's cat term used in some contexts in the contents I watch or hear but I wasn't ready to read a long history regarding the same.

However, this book hit different and I got what I needed.

All the basic information that one needs to know about the personality and the contribution made are well presented in such a manner that the contents are given an illusion of short read in a short book but we come to know what's basic that we need to know.

Awesome read. Everyone can go for this one as the language is quite fit even for beginners.

Thank you, author and the publisher, for the advance reader copy.