Einstein in Kafkaland
How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up With the Universe
by Ken Krimstein
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Pub Date Aug 20 2024 | Archive Date Aug 19 2024
Bloomsbury USA | Bloomsbury Publishing
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Description
“Clever, charming, amusing, and just plain brilliant. Ken Krimstein is the most inventive graphic biographer on the planet-and certainly the only one who could explain both Einstein and Kafka. A page turner on gravity and relativity!” -Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of American Prometheus, the biography that inspired the Oscar-winning film Oppenheimer
From the award-winning New Yorker cartoonist, a graphic narrative revealing the pivotal year in Prague when Einstein became “Einstein,” Franz Kafka became “Kafka,” and the world changed forever.
During the year that Prague was home to both Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka from 1911-1912, the trajectory of the two men's lives wove together in uncanny ways-as did their shared desire to tackle the world's biggest questions in Europe's strangest city. In stunning words and pictures, Einstein in Kafkaland reveals the untold story of how their worlds wove together in a cosmic battle for new kinds of truth.
For Einstein, his lost year in Prague became a critical bridge set him on the path to what many consider the greatest scientific discovery of all time, his General Theory of Relativity. And for Kafka, this charmed year was a bridge to writing his first masterpiece, The Judgment. Based on diaries, lectures, letters, and papers from this period amid a planet electrifying itself into modernity, Einstein in Kafkaland brings to life the emergence of a new world where art and science come together in ways we still grapple with today.
A Note From the Publisher
**this full color file is NOT available for Kindle** Apologies for any inconvenience
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781635579536 |
| PRICE | $32.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 272 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Stacey M, Reviewer
I love the loose sketch and watercolor art style in "Einstein in Kafkaland" as it is easy on the eyes. The consistent color palette also makes the reading cohesive.
The narrator is '"famed skeleton who graces the famed astronomical close in Prague" and he is a cheeky character unto himself. He tells of a possible history of a specific time period (1911 to 1912) where two great minds, Einstein and Kafka, in two different fields will emerge with breakthrough ideas that will have lasting impact: Kafka in literature and Einstein in physics.
Admittedly, I found FranzKafka more interesting in this speculative history of Einstein in his Prague years. Einstein, here, is likable but I found him hard to relate to because much of his dialogue is related to his theories so it sometimes feels like reading a legal paper with circular twisting legal jargon. I do like that Mileva gets a chance to address her contributions to Einstein's famous theory. That was a highlight for me even though I know that history (and Einstein) will not treat her well, but that's another story for another time.
Kafka is easier to relate to because he is sort of where many of us are now in that we are struggling to get by, the has his routine, he has a job that his father wanted him to take. He is getting by but his mind is always active. He is stuck in the new industry of insurance and he wants to write literature that shakes up the reader.
In 1912 as it is today, quirky books are a hard sell, or so I've seen on booktube.
Anyway, it makes empathize with Kafka in a way that I don't connect with Einstein. Also, I loved Kafka as the Cheshire cat. I think he would have approved.
The science flew over my head but my son read it when he had some down time. He likes art and science and he enjoyed how science is portrayed in a lively and ALIVE way and of course, "Euclid was awesome." He's not an Einstein fan but he came out liking Einstein more after reading it. Like me, he also liked the bits of surrounding history that grounds the time period, like the theft of the Mona Lisa and the rumblings of problems in Russia.
In its 224 pages, it packs a lot of information and ideas. I had to read it slowly and mostly because of the science, but it was a great read. I loved the format and the style.
