Instantly recognizable and world famous, most of what we know about Einstein is on the level of caricature. So it is fitting that cartoons are used to flesh out the man, his place in history and the astonishing complexity of his theories. Ottaviani has made a specialty in profiling revolutionary scientists whose controversial discoveries transformed our understanding - using speech bubbles, asides, flashbacks and foreshadowing to tell the complicated history of who, how and why. Those who know a little about Einstein will find the familiar stories fleshed out: his late acquisition of language, difficulty finding a teaching position and the letter to F.D.R. that launched the Manhattan Project. Here too are extensive insights into his personal relationships, family, marriages, affairs, politics and his all important conversations with a whose-who of the most important physicists, astronomers and mathematicians of the 20th century. Engaging cartoon style drawings, varied panel design and size, and sophisticated colors, complement the conversational text. Those who understand the import of Einstein’s theories and thought experiments will be fascinated to see them visually represented and placed in context. Those with less of a grasp on the science are given a chance to glimpse what all the fuss is about, and to acquire a glimmer of understanding of conceptual physics. While not for the casual comic book reader, Einstein will be welcomed by those interested in the great man and the theory of relativity, as well as by high school physics teachers hoping to open up a world of revolutionary thought to a new generation.
Thanks to Netgalley and First Second for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A thoroughly detailed and illustrated biography of Albert Einstein's life. What Jim Ottaviani and Jerel Dye bring to this graphic novel is a humanness to their storytelling. They don't put Einstein on a pedestal or shy away from his flaws. Instead, Einstein is shown as a multifaceted person, one who contributed amazing things to our society while also struggling in life. Dye and Ottaviani also present science and mathematics in comprehensive way. The illustrations lend creativity and humor into story, and make what could a really dense narrative into an enjoyable story about a man who loomed large in history.

7/10
Einstein by Jim Ottaviani was a graphic novel that i really enjoyed reading. As someone who is very interested in science and physics, learning more about the life of Albert Einstein was incredibly interesting to me, since i didnt know a lot about him as a person before. The story is very easy to follow and the author does a great job at not overcomplicating anything and explaining the physics in a way that everyone can understand it. The graphics were beautiful as well and really brought this home.

Einstein by Jim Ottaviani is a charming and informative graphic novel about the genius himself. I loved the art style and how it spanned Einstein's whole life in relatively good detail. It is a great read!

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher First and Second Books for an advanced copy of this graphic novel biography of one of the brightest minds of the Twentieth Century.

Comics are a perfect medium for so many different things. Some can have gals and guys in capes punching each other and saving the world. Some can have fantastic worlds or gigantic space battles that no movie studio could ever afford to bring to theaters. And you can tell the lives of great women and men, warts and all. Einstein, written by Jim Ottaviani and illustrated by Jerel Dye is a complete look at the life of Albert Einstein, who developed one of the most famous and well known mathematical equations, changing thinking in the sciences, worked hard to make life better for all of us, while hurting the women around him.

The book begins with Einstein accompanying the actor Charlie Chaplin to a film premiere, where Chaplin supposedly told Einstein that "They are cheering us both, you because nobody understands you, and me because every one understands me." This seems to be a common theme for Einstein as is shown throughout the book, that his mind always seemed to be seeing things differently, that his focus would be on that problem, and not on the world around him, to the detriment of his health, and probably to his family. We follow his life from sickly child, to becoming interested in math and the sciences from a family friend, to his school days in Zurich. We meet his first wife, and more of the notable scientists and colleagues that he would befriend and sometimes feud with. The book touches on the casual way people would discriminate against Einstein for his being Jewish, and that some of the more baseless attacks on his theory were based more on race, than on scientific principles.

This is a great graphic novel in all ways. The way the story is presented and told, the art the information. Just an achievement. The characters, except for Einstein break the fourth-wall and share information directly with the reader. The character of Einstein is almost separate from the rest of the story, as he probably felt in his own life, always working on things in his head, while the story is told. The science is well explained and makes sense, the illustrations filling in what the reading might not make clear. The art is really good. Consistent character design, great backgrounds, a bit of whimsy, and very well done. The art conveys the equations quite well, allowing the panel to be filled with what the characters are discussing, which keeps the book moving.

A big book about a big life that never seems overlong, or dull. The art keeps the story moving, complimenting the words well. Plus there is a nice bibliography at the end in case a reader would like to know more. Highly recommended especially as a nice gift for the holidays, for kids who think big, but a big book might scare them, or for people who just enjoy learning about new things.

The story of how Albert Einstein became the famous figure we know today. Various friends and family accounts offer personal observations of how Einstein interacted with the world and how he worked. Clean and clear artwork help humanize the story.

Thank you so much Netgalley, the author and the publisher for allowing me to read the book in exchange of honest opinion.

I am not an overenthusiastic fan of science or physics or even Einstein as a person but I read his biography 3-4 years ago in Bangla that totally captivated me! I had similar if not higher expectations from this book. While the illustrations are gorgeous and beautifully capture the vibes, I had a hard time forming any emotional connection with the story. The words felt stilted at times and my attention kept wavering. However, I loved seeing him through others' eyes, learned quite a lot of information and would recommend this book to everyone.

In many ways this book is a brave experiment - very detailed illustrated life of Einstein at ~280 pages. It carries it off very well.

The book covers a vast period – staring from Albert Einstein’s childhood right till his passing. It includes his childhood, his family, performance at school & college, his relationships, his political views, his theories, his mistakes and interaction with other physicists. As expected, his disdain for quantum physics finds good coverage including his sarcastic remark of phantom interactions across the globe in an article. I did not know that Neil Bohr responded to this article countering it in a fact-based manner, and in good humour using the exact same title for his article. Einstein’s search for a unified theory made no progress too. That said, his theory of relativity was revolutionary and his path to it finds a lot of space.

For a book in this format, it is surprisingly detailed. That said, I felt it is also a limitation where elaborations are difficult to provide. The illustrations are all top-notch and the captions are largely very good.

If Einstein’s life and his contribution interests you, this is an excellent book to read.

My rating: 4.25 / 5.

One of those wordy non-fiction graphic novels; this one seems a heck of a lot less expository and full of shouty “I am telling myself this that I already know because the audience need to know it as well, damn them!” moments than many. It’s just that with its classical style, regular grid formatting and so on, it really seems to be here less for the entertainment and more for the ‘lesson for the visual learner only’ audience. I am sure given the pedigree of it all it would have been a lesson, but one I never felt fully in the mood for, after Einstein’s missus gave us some background physics talk. Also, I read four books about the man in 2021 alone, so this seems like last year’s news. If the imagery does help you absorb some of the theoretical physics discussed, then it will of course have done its job, and I don’t doubt it can do that with ease – but pleasure and visual style were both lacking somewhat.

I'm not a mathematician or physicist and can't say that I have more than the most basic understanding of relativity and quantum mechanics, but I was able to enjoy this graphic novel which works as part biography part science lesson. The reader is exposed to aspects of Einstein's personal life and his political leanings as well as to the theories that made him a household name. I enjoyed the use of music in the illustrations to show Einstein's thought processes. While I can't say that I understood all the science, I feel like I learned a lot. My biggest take-away was Einstein's ability to except his errors and continue to challenge and rethink his worldview, touchstones of any true scientist.

Einstein by Jim Ottaviani

The book follows Einstein as he goes throughout his life told from the perspective of others around him. While the story progresses, we see all the people and things that influenced his life and how he became the man we all know today.

Things that I enjoyed:
- I enjoyed how the story was told through others and not from his perspective, as this gave us a better understanding that many people help shape and influence you throughout your life.
- The art was great and had really good color theory throughout the book which made it feel cohesive and had well thought out graphics
- The theories that were taught were so well taught to you as the reader. They took their time explaining hard to grasp ideas and theories and making them into something that anyone at any age could grasp.

Things that needed to be improved:
- First and foremost, this does not appear to be written by an English speaker. There were many sentences and phrases that just did not flow in the English language.
- The book was far, far too long. While I loved the first 100ish pages, I started to really lose interest in the rest of the book after that point and with that they would have sped up through some of the less important things that happened in his life.
- Once I figured out how the story was being told, I enjoyed the device, but figuring it out wasn't something that clicked right away and I think that making it more obvious would have been helpful
- Adding a list of characters and who they are and how they know Einstein would have been really helpful, especially for younger readers

Overall, the graphic novel did well to expose you to the life of Einstein, but fell short in the length of the story.

An engaging and innovative way to share the life and accomplishments of a science great. Einstein balances the biographical storytelling with informative scientific facts in a way that makes it accessible for readers of all ages. I appreciate that it doesn’t read like a science book and would appeal to readers who don’t have a strong science background. I will definitely purchase a copy for our school library and look forward to more graphic novels in this style.

Excellently illustrated and a staple of consistency in innovation and technique from this excellent graphic novelist! I can't wait to see what comes next.

A lighthearted way of learning about an important figure in history and science ! A great thing to have in your lavatory or on the coffee table. It makes you want to read more and is a very accessible way of learning. I loved the art style - it depicted everything is a quirky way while also being very easy to follow.
A great read and would recommend for kids as well !

Wow... this graphic novel does an impressive job of consistently showing us the matter of Einstein's timeline rather well while running heavy on some of the science and math principles explored in these timelines as well. While I absolutely found it fascinating to see the art come together with Einstein's life, I also found it tedious - even as a science and math buff like myself. For this reason I feel this would be difficult for the average person to pickup and enjoy and also is ultimately the reason for my discounting one star from the rating. I also feel it may have had some pacing issues - it really was all over the place in some instances and could be rather confusing to follow what was happening exactly.

Even if this book is not a great fit for my public library, or my personal reading taste, I can't help but admire the skill and craft put into this lovely graphic biography. Each page holds a wealth of knowledge about Einstein's life and theories, all presented in as cheeky, and reader-friendly a way as possible for this sort of abstract thinking. The clever use of speech bubble shapes and characters breaking the "fourth wall" of the strips allow readers to tell the difference between narration and in-universe character interactions in a way that livens up narration and allows different view points without completely confusing the actual narrative of Einstein's life. The art is down-to-earth functional in a way that perfectly fits with the story, but also not afraid to incorporate little bits of whimsy in a way that livens what could easily have been just characters staring at walls for long periods of time. Beautifully done. I cannot think of a single thing I would suggest to improve this work.

While I'd say this is meant for teens and up, I think by virtue of Einstein's theories and all of the abstract science floating around this is actually meant for science nerds primarily. Not necessarily a great fit for small public libraries with limited space, but absolutely a must have for any school or academic library with a serious-business science department. The book works so hard to present these ideas in a way that's understandable, with beautiful visuals of the blue violin as his theories, that even a down-to-earth anti-abstract person like myself has to admire the craft.

Albert Einstein gehört zu den berühmtesten Wissenschaftlern der Welt, um den sich nicht ohne Grund jede Menge Mythen ranken. Schon als Jugendliche haben mich Einsteins Theorien und sein Leben brennend interessiert, auch wenn ich nicht alles verstanden habe, womit er sich im Laufe seines Lebens beschäftigt hat.

Umso spannender fand ich die Tatsache, dass es eine Graphic Novel über Einstein gibt, die ich mir als Leseexemplar ansehen durfte.
Um es gleich vorweg zu nehmen: die Zeichnungen fand ich gut gelungen, die Figuren sind eher realistisch als comicartig und man merkt sofort, mit wie viel Mühe und Liebe hier vorgegangen wurde. Der Künstler Jerel Dye erweckt mit seinen Zeichnungen Einstein und alle Personen in seinem Leben für den Leser regelrecht zum Leben.
Der Schriftsteller Jim Ottaviani zeigt nicht nur Einsteins Lebenslauf, sondern auch seine einzelnen Theorien auf, die teilweise wiederum von Dye graphisch dargestellt werden. Eine sehr gründliche und informative Biographie, die mehr bietet als ein paar schöne Bilder und biographische Begebenheiten.
Der Clou ist, dass die beiden Einsteins Wegbegleiter erzählen lassen. Sogar Charlie Chaplin kommt zu Wort. Dabei wird nichts beschönigt und Einstein mit all seinen Ecken und Kanten porträtiert.

Für mich war es schwierig, die dargestellten Theorien Einsteins und auch andere mathematische und physikalische Ideen nachzuvollziehen, da mir einfach die englischen Sprachkenntnisse für diese Fachbegriffe fehlten. Das ist natürlich sehr schade, denn diese Theorien sind an sich schon schwer genug zu verstehen. Das Risiko bin ich eingegangen und das hat dann leider den Lesefluss etwas gestört.

Insgesamt fand ich das Buch über Einsteins Leben und Werk aber sehr spannend und interessant. Besonders die dargestellte lebenslange Freundschaft zu Niels Bohr hat mich dabei fasziniert.
Wer sich für Einstein interessiert oder wie ich allgemein gerne Biografien als Graphic Novel liest, ist bei diesem Buch genau richtig.

This graphic novel has almost everything that I totally love in this kind of publication: great drawings and an even greater story. I absolutely fell in love with the pictures, this is certainly my favorite style. I could stare at them for ages. The story of Albert Einstein's life is interesting, of course, but... For me, there was too much physics and not enough Albert. I don´t get even a quarter of theoretical physics so I skipped a lot of text, only admiring the drawings. For those with a strong interest in the topic, I´m sure you´ll enjoy the book.

3 Stars ( I received an e-arc from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review)

This was a cute graphic novel, retelling einstein’s life through his wife talking to people at an opera. We see his childhood and his immense interest in physics and how he can be a bit of a pain to the people around him. It also shows his many relationships with women and how diastorous some of them ended up being.

I had a difficult time getting through this graphic novel. I am very interested in Einstein but beginning of this graphic novel doesn't start off with any foundation causing me to be confused as to what was going on. I then found the pace and story line all over the place.