The Other Einstein: A Novel

by Marie Benedict

The Other Einstein offers us a window into a brilliant, fascinating woman whose light was lost in Einstein's enormous shadow. It is the story of Einstein's wife, a brilliant physicist in her own right, whose contribution to the special theory of relativity is hotly debated and may have been inspired by her own profound and very personal insight. Mitza Maric has always been a little different from other girls. Most twenty-year-olds are wives by now, not studying physics at an elite Zurich university with only male students trying to outdo her clever calculations. But Mitza is smart enough to know that, for her, math is an easier path than marriage. And then fellow student Albert Einstein takes an interest in her, and the world turns sideways. Theirs becomes a partnership of the mind and of the heart, but there might not be room for more than one genius in a marriage.

• ISBN10: 1492637254
• ISBN13: 9781492637257
• Publish Date: 18 November 2016 (first published 18 October 2016)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 28 September 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Sourcebooks, Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

First Date:
Readers of this blog will know that I enjoy reading books on famous persons' signficant others. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I picked up The Other Einstein. Unfortunately, I had a little difficulty getting into this novel and even tried listening to some of it. This helped a little, but I enjoyed Mozhan Marno's narration style more than I did the telling of the novel.

Second Date:
Mitza, Albert Einstein's wife was smart and had an interesting life story but Albert had a tendency to use her as a doormat. I was frustrated by this behavior and had a hard time seeing beyond it.

Third Date:
Albert Einstein was a douche and thus took away anything enjoyable that may have been contained in the novel. The Other Einstein will not be getting lucky.

This review was originally posted on First Impressions Reviews

[Beth C.]

Everyone knows the name of Albert Einstein, and can probably picture him in their heads - the crazy hair, the wrinkled face...But very few people know about his first wife, Mileva, and her own brilliance in the field of science. That very brilliance that first brought them together, and would eventually tear them apart. Marie Benedict tells the story of "The Other Einstein", one who battled sexism, her health, and old traditions in order to become the scientist that she dreamed of being - and fell in love with a man along the way.

Never having heard of Mileva, it was interesting to read her story and to come to understand that she is *still* believed by some scientists to have been been pivotal in Albert's work. Bearing in mind what the author said, that the book stays as close to fact as possible, while still needing some element of fiction to flesh things out, I quite admired Mileva's courage, particularly considering the role she would have been expected to play as a woman in that society. The story is not one that will having a reader racing through the pages with heart-pounding excitement, but it is a very thoughtful book that is evenly paced and just tells a very good story.

Benedict fleshes out the characters quite well, helped along by her immense research and the trove of letters available online (which she mentions in the Author's Note section, helping the reader to find them as well). Neither Albert nor Mileva were all bad or all good, they were just human, and humans have strengths and weaknesses. Benedict was able to take those strengths and weaknesses and allow those people on the page to feel real, as though the reader might actually have met them while getting a cup of coffee.

Overall, I was happily surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, and also - how eye-opening it was. Again - there is certainly some fiction, but since so much of what is written is based on fact, it is unlikely that even the fiction went too far astray. I would certainly recommend this book, as well as those recommended by the author in her notes.

[Heather]

"What secrets may have lurked in the shadows of Albert Einstein’s fame? His first wife, Mileva “Mitza” Marić, was more than the devoted mother of their three children—she was also a brilliant physicist in her own right, and her contributions to the special theory of relativity have been hotly debated for more than a century.
In 1896, the extraordinarily gifted Mileva is the only woman studying physics at an elite school in Zürich. There, she falls for charismatic fellow student Albert Einstein, who promises to treat her as an equal in both love and science. But as Albert’s fame grows, so too does Mileva’s worry that her light will be lost in her husband’s shadow forever."





This was one of the books that I was most excited about after BEA. It is a book that seems designed just for me.

• Historical fiction ✔️


• About women's history ✔️


• Science ✔️

So why did I delay reading this until now?

Every time I picked it up I couldn't quite bring myself to read it.  I knew what it was going to be.  It is yet another story of a woman who was forced to give up her own ambitions to fit in with the mores of her time.  Honestly, the thought exhausted me.

The book is a well written story of the life of Mileva Maric.  She was a Serbian woman who attended university in Zurich in physics.  She was Einstein's classmate.  She finished her coursework but failed her degree.  She had a child with Einstein before they married.  That child either died young or was given up for adoption.  Nothing is known for sure.  After their marriage they had two sons.  They divorced when he was having an affair.  His mother didn't like her because Mileva was an inferior dark-skinned Slavic person.  (I don't know.  She looks pretty pale to me but I'm Slavic too so Mama Einstein probably wouldn't have cared for my opinion either.)

It isn't known if she helped him with his scientific work.  There are some letters from him to her where he refers to "our work" but it is earlier in the relationship.  This book imagines that she had the idea for relativity and worked on the math.

What follows is a story of erasure.  Her name isn't on the paper because it wouldn't look good that he needed the help of a woman.  He stops asking her for advice.  She feels like he sees her as just a housewife.  He spends more and more time away and blames her for being selfish if she questions him.  He tries to impose a bizarre contract on her in order to keep the marriage together for the sake of the children.

"CONDITIONS

A. You will make sure:

1. that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order;
2. that I will receive my three meals regularly in my room;
3. that my bedroom and study are kept neat, and especially that my desk is left for my use only.

B. You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons. Specifically, You will forego:

1. my sitting at home with you;
2. my going out or travelling with you.

C. You will obey the following points in your relations with me:

1. you will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way;
2. you will stop talking to me if I request it;
3. you will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it.

D. You will undertake not to belittle me in front of our children, either through words or behavior."  Source

This is the part that was hard to read.  I wish I was more surprised by it but my feeling as I was reading this was, "Yeah, same ol' same ol'"  This is the story of ambitious women from the beginning of time.

I was thrilled when she was awarded the proceeds of any future Nobel Prize in the divorce settlement.  You go girl!  She got it too.  That's actual historical fact.  Actually she got to live on the interest from it which she invested in rental properties.

I'd recommend this book to any historical fiction fans.

This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story