R.J. Gadney: Albert Einstein Speaking, Canongate UK, 9781786890474, hardback available, paperback 9781786890498 available March 14, 2019

I was seduced into reading “Albert Einstein Speaking” by the publisher’s blurb:  “Princeton New Jersey. 14^th March 1954. “Albert Einstein speaking.” “What?” says the girl on the telephone”? “I am sorry, she says, I have the wrong number.” From a wrong number to a friendship that would impact both their lives, the novel begins with a meeting of two very different minds – the world most respected scientist and a schoolgirl from New Jersey……”  So much for the blurb which did the trick in winning me as a reader and I don't regret these reading hours at all.

It is true that Mimi Beaufort, the girl on the phone and Isabella, her sister, played a very important role

in making Albert Einstein’s life a much happier one during his last years. But while reading I started to get a bit miffed and felt lead on as the blurb made me believe the book would be predominately about this relationship but in fact only 25 % of the book are about their relationship. 

The remaining 75 % of the book is a fictionalized biography staying close to the facts of Albert Einstein’s incredible life.  Putting my being miffed aside, I began to enjoy this very informative, charming, well composed and engrossing read about Albert Einstein. I did not know very much about his life apart from the more well-known facts. Reading “Albert Einstein speaking” gave me a great insight into this Nobel Prize Winner’s biography, a Jew and pacifist who supported the founding of the state of Israel hating the Nazi’s, a man who loved music and the ladies, who had a tumultuous private life during equally tumultuous political times and is still considered the most influential physicist of the 20^th century.  

For me the most charming part of the book was of course the part dealing with the tender, fatherly relationship he had with Mimi and Isabella in US exile where he taught at Princeton leaving the political mess of Europe behind but taking some trusted family members and friends with him.