I got about halfway through this book before putting it down for quite some time. I really liked The Paris Wife and though this wasn't quite up to that effort, in terms of strength of characters and plot points. The two situations (Einstein and Hemingway's wives) aren't exactly parallel although share some common ground -- smart men who are driven by their work and lousy towards their spouses. But the devil is in the details, which is why this book comes up short. And this is coming from my perspective of knowing a lot more about Einstein's life than Hemingway's. I might try to pick up where I left off but I applaud Benedict for trying to handle a difficult subject.

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.

The Other Einstein is a story that has been waiting to be tolld for decades. Some say it sullies Albert Einstein's legacy. It's not until reading The Other Einstein that one becomes aware that Albert was, foremost, a legend in his own mind. How I wish this book had arrived in the 70's. it might have saved a lot of suffering brought by women selling themseves short.

I loved this book! The full review will be posted soon at kaitgoodwin.com/books! Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to connect books to their readers!

The premise seemed extremely fascinating especially because I never even once thought of Albert Einstein having a wife which seems silly now that I think about it. However, now that I go back and think about it, a lot of those famous people back in the day, I don’t think the general public really ever thought of them as a person who had any personal life other than what we know them as. For example, Isaac Newton: I’m sure he had a wife but we know nothing about her. In fact, when I googled him, there wasn’t even a mention about a wife. Imagine all the people we missed out on who probably played an essential role in supporting or fostering these great figures in our past. So when I saw the synopsis for The Other Einstein, I jumped at it.

The book definitely started off quite slow – in fact, for the first quarter of the book, I really contemplated about putting the book down because it was just.so.slow. I understand the author had to build the plot and the world for the readers but honestly, the pace was just ridiculously mind-numbingly slow. However, just when I was 99% sure about putting the book down, it finally started to get interesting. By this point, I was probably close to a third in.

All I can say is that after reading this book, if it has even an iota of truth to it then my perception of Albert Einstein has now completely shifted. And I’m pretty sure there is some truth to the whole thing mainly because I read the extra at the end about where Marie got her information from and a lot of the facts point to some of the main points that Marie made in the book. And if that is really the case, my entire view on Einstein has changed drastically. It’s just mind boggling to me about how selfish he was and how he had the audacity to reprimand his own wife for her selfishness even when she even pointed out that it’s not for her sake but for the children. Honestly, he was just so cruel to her especially towards the end – he essentially treated her with contempt. I just can’t wrap my head around it. The biggest sign that Albert was actually a douchebag was the way he treated his daughter. At that point, I would have been, see ya douchebag. Instead, Mileva gave him another chance due to her parent’s encouragements. Such a scumbag.

As for Mileva, she was a little too weak-willed for me. Granted, a lot of it was due to the time period where females were seen as a lower class than males; however, at the same time, Albert Einstein fell in love with her because of her mind so why did she feel so shy to speak up about his treatment of her? Instead, she allowed him to basically walk all over her and forgave him at every turn. I think the turning point was when he removed her name from their first collaboration and didn’t even inform her about it. And when she forgave him by collaborating him again and he did the same thing yet again, I think that was when he realized that he could basically cut her off from everything and she would simply let him. The biggest problem was her inability to speak up. I believe that if she had simply gone to the patent house with him the second time around, and made sure that he would do what he said he would, then things might have been different. People would have seen both of them as intellectual geniuses rather than simply Albert Einstein and he would include her in these scientific debates much more often.

At the end of the book, I was pretty much in shock from what happened and honestly, I’m a little curious myself now to find out what really happened. So if you’re into historical fiction and learning an interesting take on what was preconceived for so long, definitely check.

I enjoyed learning about Mileva Marie and her brilliant and overlooked contributions to the world. While I typically gravitate toward these types of fictional biographies, this left me feeling flat. Given the current state of the importance of telling female stories, perhaps non-fiction may have been more "readable" for me. The novel's conjecture relating to Marie's feelings and personal life, seemed forced.

Complex, sluggish for me to get into, and took forever to finish.

Although this book is historical fiction, and thus speculative in some of its details (though also true to history in many ways), there is no question that women were treated unfairly in the past. It made me ache all over again for the sacrifices that my own brilliant grandmother made for her family (even though she was not a scientist).

In ‘The Other Einstein’ we read the story of Mileva ‘Mitza’ MarícI, Albert Einstein's wife. I was very intrigued by the premise but found the execution quite superficial and I could not engage fully with the characters. Perhaps it is the form of these novels based in truth that doesn't 'sit' quite well with me, however, I will recommend it to others who I think will enjoy it, it just wasn't for me at this time.

While there's nothing wrong with the writing itself, I found the story difficult to swallow. There's simply too many unanswered questions out there with no proof of validity. The story presented here has very little basis in fact due to that. While women certainly had it difficult, and still do, this paints a rather drab view of her life without anything to show for it being based in truth.

I believe I first heard about this book from an old edition of Buzz Books (I can't remember which one). Prior to hearing of this book, I had never spent any amount of time thinking about any of the people that surrounded Einstein throughout his life, let alone the women he may have pursued.

The Other Einstein tells the story of a brilliant, female, student of science. I loved this story.
Marie Benedict paints a story of Mitza, a woman who pursued a life in the science field, at a time that women did not chase math and science. Mitza is brilliant and inspiring. I found myself constantly getting angry for her. She deserved so much better than the life she got.

This authors writing style was very enjoyable. I often find myself growing bored while reading historical fiction, but I loved the story of Mitza Einstein. The story of this intelligent Serbian woman was fantastic. I would love to read more historical fiction by Marie Benedict.

This is a fictional account of the life of Mileva Maric, Albert Einstein's first wife. Mileva's scientific contributions are not well documented, because her husband, Albert Einstein, took sole credit for their joint work. This is a tale of caution, of a potentially brilliant woman relegated to the shadows because of an out of wedlock child, female inequality and a genius who refused to share center stage.

I struggle with my feelings when I read a fictionalized account of real people. I always wonder, is the book doing justice or not to these people? There is no way to really know.

I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley. The opinions are solely my own.

I will never think about Einstein the same way again!
This is a fictionalized account of Einstein's first wife, Mileva Maric, a physicist and mathematician in her own right. Very interesting and well told story.
I appreciate the author's note at the end, letting us know what was documented, and what not. Readers interested in more factual information can seek out her sources, which are listed in the book.

Oh! So infuriating! I was angry for 90% of this book! Compelling and thought provoking.

[Reivew will go up on my blog on 14 January, but is already posted to goodreads and librarything]

The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict is a fictionalised account of the life of Mileva Marić, who was Albert Einstein's first wife. It's based partly on historical records and letters sent between the couple, but also includes a dollop of conjecture, as the author notes in her afterword.

A vivid and mesmerizing novel about the extraordinary woman who married and worked with one of the greatest scientists in history.

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.

A literary historical in the tradition of The Paris Wife and Mrs. Poe, The Other Einstein reveals a complicated partnership that is as fascinating as it is troubling.

This book caught my eye because— well why wouldn't it? As a woman and as an (astro-) physicist myself, why wouldn't I be interested in reading about a lesser-known woman who was so close to some of the most fundamental progressions in physics a century ago? And while I don't generally read non-fiction outside of work, this was a novelised account, so it didn't count as non-fiction, right? That's not to say I didn't have some problems with it.

First off, I didn't like the first person narrator voice of Mileva. I thought that as a woman in the same field — albeit more than a century later — I should at least have something in common with her. But aside from her professed love of physics I couldn't find any commonalities. I was also surprised at how much discussion of hair and appearance there was from someone who I would have expected to not care about those things beyond what was strictly necessary as mandated by society. I did not connect with the character at all, although I do admit I became invested in her plight as I read further.

That investment mainly paid off in making me want to shout at the page and tell her not to make certain poor decisions. That said, I was a bit disappointed to read, in the afterword, that the story was more fictional than I had hoped (some of the less consequential and/or more mysterious events were made up/extrapolated). This of course includes all the private interactions with Albert that weren't referenced in their letters to each other. Which brings me to the most controversial part of this book: Albert's treatment of Mileva. The way the author writes it, there were a lot of red flags in the beginning, but I can see how they were easy to overlook in a state of youthful inexperience. That didn't stop me being angry at Albert on Mileva's behalf, especially when he grew resentful of her for both being a housewife and daring to want to be more than a housewife. Those interactions, while somewhat upsetting, were the more interestingly written part of the book.

The other thing that bothered me, fiction aside, were some of the descriptions of physics. I generally didn't find them to be that great. I mean, the first description of special relativity was terrible, although the second one (when it came up again later) was an improvement. It was disappointing since it ought to have been quite central to the story. Some of the general physics chatter was superficial enough to not feel actively wrong, but... well, not everyone can be everything, but it was still disappointing.

Perhaps this book is best taken as historical fiction and not read for the physics aspects. As I said, I didn't find the characterisation of the protagonist very satisfying (and I didn't find her voice at all believable at first), but others might not have the same issues. It was overall an interesting read and I can imagine a passable Hollywood movie being made of it. I recommend it to readers that find the premise interesting, but with the caveats discussed above.

3.5 / 5 stars

First published: 2016, Sourcebooks
Series: no
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via Netgalley

I love historical fiction and when it's a peek behind the scenes of someone well known from the perspective of a person in the life of the famous person....well, that's just the cherry on top. Mary is a full blown character in her own right. And, while the author takes some liberties, this book is a definite must read for historical fiction fans.

A fascinating premise, but the characters were flat and the plot meandering.

What a wonderful concept:, Mileva Maric, Albert Einstein's first wife, may have been collaborator in The Theory of Relativity. History does tell us that she was one of the few women to study math and science at the Zurich Polytechnic School. She had dreams of becoming a teacher. But, she met Albert and while at first he included her in scientific discussions and she fell in love with him, thus bringing her dream to an end. She became pregnant and failed her final exams. Albert if not a loving husband/father as his fame grows he begins to treat Mileva not as a helpmate but as a chattel. Eventually it all implodes when he takes up with his cousin (whom he later marries) and makes impossible written demands on Mileva. Yet, he agrees to give her the money to any future Nobel Prize.for "his" 1905 paper on Relativity. Why would a selfish man do this unless it was a way to assuage his quilt over not giving credit where credit was due is my question? I liked Ms. Benedict's take on this story and highly recommend it.

Complex characters, and it's a very real possibility that the Theory of Relativity should have had -2- authors!

The Other Einstein was a difficult read. I'd never done any research on Einstein, only read his book "On Relativity." Reading about him from his wife's point of view, especially such a negative one was hard. Usually, we think of Einstein as a pillar of genius, thus he MUST be a wonderful person. That's not the take in this book. He's made all-too-human (as he ought to be), and it was a little unexpected.

Mitza, Mrs. Einstein, is a fascinating character. She develops richly throughout the novel, and I enjoyed getting to know her. While this version of her is fictionalized, I think she's the kind of lady I'd like to know and be friends with-brilliant, kind, and willing to share knowledge.

Give this book a try. You'll enjoy it.