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The Einstein Girl
At the heart of truth lies madness...Two months before Hitler's rise to power, a beautiful young woman is found naked and near death in the woods outside Berlin. When she finally wakes from her coma, she can remember nothing, not even her name. The only clue to her identity is a handbill found nearby, advertising a public lecture by Albert 'On the Present State of Quantum Theory'.Psychiatrist Martin Kirsch takes the case, little suspecting that this will be his last. As he searches for the truth about 'the Einstien Girl', professional fascination turns to reckless love. His investigations lead him to a remote corner of Siberia via a psychiatric hospital in Zurich. There the inheritor of Einstein's genius - his youngest son, Eduard - is writing a book that will destroy his illustrious father and, in the process, change the world.
402 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 8, 2009
50 people are currently reading
1078 people want to read
About the author
Philip Sington
3 books40 followersaka Patrick Lynch (with Gary Humphreys)
Philip Sington is an English novelist and playwright. He was born in Cambridge, UK.
He read history at Trinity College, Cambridge. Together with mystery writer Gary Humphreys he co-authored six thrillers under the joint pseudonym of Patrick Lynch, selling over 1 million copies worldwide. The third, 'Carriers', was adapted for the screen in 1998. They also collaborated on the stage play 'Lip Service', which premiered at the Finborough Theatre, London in 2000. His first solo novel, 'Zoia's Gold', was published in 2005. His second, 'The Einstein Girl' was published in 2009. This was followed in 2012 by 'The Valley of Unknowing'. His work has been translated into 21 foreign languages. He lives in London with his German wife and their two children.
Philip Sington is an English novelist and playwright. He was born in Cambridge, UK.
He read history at Trinity College, Cambridge. Together with mystery writer Gary Humphreys he co-authored six thrillers under the joint pseudonym of Patrick Lynch, selling over 1 million copies worldwide. The third, 'Carriers', was adapted for the screen in 1998. They also collaborated on the stage play 'Lip Service', which premiered at the Finborough Theatre, London in 2000. His first solo novel, 'Zoia's Gold', was published in 2005. His second, 'The Einstein Girl' was published in 2009. This was followed in 2012 by 'The Valley of Unknowing'. His work has been translated into 21 foreign languages. He lives in London with his German wife and their two children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 115 reviews
March 18, 2011
The Einstein Girl is a real page turner and had me hooked right from the beginning, Its a Historical/Thriller I dont read thrillers as such but this Novel's blurb really drew me in and I was so glad I put it on my "to read sooner rather than later list" I loved the two main characters and felt they were very cleverly developed, my only regret with this novel was that I would love to have had the time to read it in one or two sittings as I felt I really wanted to keep reading and stay with the story. To sum up I think this is a smart and well written historcial novel. This book was recommended to me by a goodreads member.
July 23, 2014
Superb historical thriller - page turner, smart and with two great characters that will stay with you for a long time
Martin Kirsch is a psychiatrist in Berlin October 1932 who cares about the welfare of his patients even to the extent of putting his career at risk by interfering with the cruel (however well intended) experiments of his immediate superior.
A former army surgeon whose WW1 wounds and hospital infection both physical and psychological scarred him for life and made him turn to psychiatry, engaged to the rich local girl and shadowed by the "ghost" of his charismatic brother Max who is presumed dead in the war and who was an amateur physicist and Einstein's devotee, Dr. Kirsch brought rigorous and outside thoughts to his studies of psychology and his one academic article brought quite a lot of attention by challenging the foundations of his profession.
While the clinic director uses this to put pressure on him to resign after one too many incidents involving Martin's opposition to brutal methods, one "obscure" anthropological researcher from Kaiser Wilhelm institute , Eugene Fischer, has big plans for Martin - after all if patients are not really treatable however brutally and a lot of mental disturbances are inherited, well the good of race implies other measures have to be taken and when the political climate changes in January 1933 Martin finds himself thrust to the forefront of events...
Fascinated with a girl he meets by chance when he gets lost in a seedier part of Berlin and then at a dance and who tells him her name is Elisabeth... Well she turns out to be the nameless "Einstein's girl", the girl found unconscious in the woods near Einstein's town house in a Berlin suburb with just a pamphlet about a lecture given by the famous physicist
Martin schemes to get the girl into his care and together they try and reconstitute who is she, why she came here...
Of course the truth is not straightforward and with both the political and the personal intruding, Martin's time to help the girl is growing short...
Just great stuff...
Martin Kirsch is a psychiatrist in Berlin October 1932 who cares about the welfare of his patients even to the extent of putting his career at risk by interfering with the cruel (however well intended) experiments of his immediate superior.
A former army surgeon whose WW1 wounds and hospital infection both physical and psychological scarred him for life and made him turn to psychiatry, engaged to the rich local girl and shadowed by the "ghost" of his charismatic brother Max who is presumed dead in the war and who was an amateur physicist and Einstein's devotee, Dr. Kirsch brought rigorous and outside thoughts to his studies of psychology and his one academic article brought quite a lot of attention by challenging the foundations of his profession.
While the clinic director uses this to put pressure on him to resign after one too many incidents involving Martin's opposition to brutal methods, one "obscure" anthropological researcher from Kaiser Wilhelm institute , Eugene Fischer, has big plans for Martin - after all if patients are not really treatable however brutally and a lot of mental disturbances are inherited, well the good of race implies other measures have to be taken and when the political climate changes in January 1933 Martin finds himself thrust to the forefront of events...
Fascinated with a girl he meets by chance when he gets lost in a seedier part of Berlin and then at a dance and who tells him her name is Elisabeth... Well she turns out to be the nameless "Einstein's girl", the girl found unconscious in the woods near Einstein's town house in a Berlin suburb with just a pamphlet about a lecture given by the famous physicist
Martin schemes to get the girl into his care and together they try and reconstitute who is she, why she came here...
Of course the truth is not straightforward and with both the political and the personal intruding, Martin's time to help the girl is growing short...
Just great stuff...
August 31, 2009
"A dark and beautiful novel." For once a book that does exactly what it says on the cover. I loved this book.
March 11, 2012
Very intense story, but based on a real events and for a very popular person, so far more interesting than a typical mystery. Except the narrator there are letters that guide us through the story. For these two reasons (except that I adore quantum mechanics and all people that made a contribution in that field) I would say it is not just a cheap thriller. If you are interested in biography or physics or even history books (we would all agree that Einstein is part of history) you should read it.
August 24, 2010
This was good historical fiction. I had some trouble telling what was actual history and what was fiction, though. It didn't make the story less interesting, but did lead me to do some reading on Einstein.
August 24, 2012
A good story, showing a human side to Einstein, and his status as 'celebrity' of his day. Historically fascinating account of pre-war psychiatry methods too. Some quantum theory but explained in reasonably simple terms!
August 25, 2012
Wow!
I really enjoyed this story set in an around Berlin in the dark and foreboding 1930's as Germany was embracing fascism and Europe was slouching toward war.
The premise builds from a bit of mystery surrounding the mad son and ostensibly deceased daughter of Einstein's first marriage. Madness, both individual and societal is a key theme of this rich and evocative story.
The protagonist is a surgeon-turned-psychiatrist who lived through and witnessed the horrors of WWI. Psychiatry is in its infancy, and the institute is a dark place where the troubled doctor runs afoul of his superiors for attempting to turn the art of psychiatry into a science. He makes what seems like an accidental, but Faustian deal with an influential politician who views on mental illness turn out to be aligned with the emerging Nazi scourge.
The doctor is about to marry a well-connected society girl when a young and mysterious woman with amnesia is brought to the asylum where he works. The patient is known as "The Einstein Girl" because she was found in the woods near the great scientist's retreat.
True to the title, Einstein figures into the story. The occasional literary tangents into his theory of special relativity are philosophical and rewarding even if they tend to distract a bit from the central story. My take-away from this was how brilliance and darkness can co-exist in the same place.
The Brown Shirts massing in the background provide a sense of doom and rising tension as the psychiatrist struggles to unravel the mystery surrounding his patient.
The writing is lush and the story is presented as fragments, letters, and narratives from multiple points of view. It's challenging at times and ultimately very rewarding with a great twist at the end.
If you like a deep, dark, and thought provoking fiction set in accurate and well-researched historical settings, this is a great read.
I really enjoyed this story set in an around Berlin in the dark and foreboding 1930's as Germany was embracing fascism and Europe was slouching toward war.
The premise builds from a bit of mystery surrounding the mad son and ostensibly deceased daughter of Einstein's first marriage. Madness, both individual and societal is a key theme of this rich and evocative story.
The protagonist is a surgeon-turned-psychiatrist who lived through and witnessed the horrors of WWI. Psychiatry is in its infancy, and the institute is a dark place where the troubled doctor runs afoul of his superiors for attempting to turn the art of psychiatry into a science. He makes what seems like an accidental, but Faustian deal with an influential politician who views on mental illness turn out to be aligned with the emerging Nazi scourge.
The doctor is about to marry a well-connected society girl when a young and mysterious woman with amnesia is brought to the asylum where he works. The patient is known as "The Einstein Girl" because she was found in the woods near the great scientist's retreat.
True to the title, Einstein figures into the story. The occasional literary tangents into his theory of special relativity are philosophical and rewarding even if they tend to distract a bit from the central story. My take-away from this was how brilliance and darkness can co-exist in the same place.
The Brown Shirts massing in the background provide a sense of doom and rising tension as the psychiatrist struggles to unravel the mystery surrounding his patient.
The writing is lush and the story is presented as fragments, letters, and narratives from multiple points of view. It's challenging at times and ultimately very rewarding with a great twist at the end.
If you like a deep, dark, and thought provoking fiction set in accurate and well-researched historical settings, this is a great read.
December 15, 2013
It's a very very well written book. Not so much for the story, which is not necessarily bordering on great but solid, but for the characters. For the picture it paints of people during the time the Nazi's got to power. While this is not the main focus of the story, it shapes the narrative and with our knowledge about what happens, it makes reading painful sometimes. You cannot but flinch at the naivity of some of the characters. The shadow of the terrible things to come always looms over the narrative and Sington does well in playing with it.
Also, the way quantum physics (it's really not as scary as it sounds because Sington, who himself studied history, puts a humanistic spin on them and many of the ideas have already found their way into cultural and literary theory) is incorporated is intriguing and very well done. It sets up a meta level that I thorroughly enjoyed.
The only thing I think was not necessary is the twist at the end. I think the book could stand on it's own, but it doesn't take anything from the quality, hence five stars.
Also, the way quantum physics (it's really not as scary as it sounds because Sington, who himself studied history, puts a humanistic spin on them and many of the ideas have already found their way into cultural and literary theory) is incorporated is intriguing and very well done. It sets up a meta level that I thorroughly enjoyed.
The only thing I think was not necessary is the twist at the end. I think the book could stand on it's own, but it doesn't take anything from the quality, hence five stars.
October 8, 2010
Berlin 1932, eine junge Frau wird bewusstlos im Wald gefunden und mit Amnesie in die Charité eingeliefert. Der einzige Hinweis ist ein Programmzettel von einem Vortrag Albert Einsteins, den man bei ihr fand. Dr. Martin Kirsch, ein dort praktizierender Psychiater, ist von ihr fasziniert und nimmt sich ihres Falles an. Er betreibt intensive Nachforschungen, die weit über ein berufliches Interesse hinausgehen und ihn bis nach Zürich führen. Doch gleichzeitig muss er um seine Stelle als Arzt in der Charité und um sein Leben kämpfen. Und die Geister der Vergangenheit fordern in Gestalt seines verstorbenen Bruders Max zusätzlich ihren Tribut. Als ob all dies nicht genug wäre, beginnt er seine Beziehung zu Alma, seiner Verlobten, in Frage zu stellen. Ist sie wirklich die Richtige?
All dies spielt sich vor dem Hintergrund der Machtergreifung der Nazis ab, die unmittelbar nach der Regierungsübernahme auch Einfluss auf Dr. Kirschs Arbeitsgebiet nehmen. Obwohl er nur für seine Arbeit lebt, findet er sich zu seiner Überraschung plötzlich in einer tragenden Rolle des Psychiatriewesens der Nazis wieder.
Es ist ein bisschen viel, womit sich der gute Dr. Kirsch in diesem Buch beschäftigen muss - neben der Behandlung des Einstein-Mädchens. Man spürt, dass dem Autor diese Themen am Herzen liegen: das sinnlose Töten im Krieg, das rücksichts- und gedankenlose Experimentieren mit Patienten aus psychiatrischen Anstalten, der Umgang mit diesen Kranken im Dritten Reich. Aber auch die Entdeckung der Quantenphysik und die damit verbundene Erkenntnis, dass Wissenschaftler damit ihrer Objektivität beraubt wurden. Sington schildert all dies überzeugend und wohl auch wahrheitsgetreu, doch manche der angerissenen Themen enden (vermutlich aufgrund der Vielzahl) bedauerlicherweise im Nirgendwo.
Dennoch: Es ist ein gut unterhaltendes und ebenso geschriebenes Buch (aber wahrlich kein Thriller, wie der Klappentext behauptet), aus dem man sicherlich auch manches Neue zum Thema Psychiatrie und Quantenphysik erfährt. Leicht zu lesen, aber nie seicht. Und wer weiß, vielleicht war das mit Albert Einstein tatsächlich so...?
All dies spielt sich vor dem Hintergrund der Machtergreifung der Nazis ab, die unmittelbar nach der Regierungsübernahme auch Einfluss auf Dr. Kirschs Arbeitsgebiet nehmen. Obwohl er nur für seine Arbeit lebt, findet er sich zu seiner Überraschung plötzlich in einer tragenden Rolle des Psychiatriewesens der Nazis wieder.
Es ist ein bisschen viel, womit sich der gute Dr. Kirsch in diesem Buch beschäftigen muss - neben der Behandlung des Einstein-Mädchens. Man spürt, dass dem Autor diese Themen am Herzen liegen: das sinnlose Töten im Krieg, das rücksichts- und gedankenlose Experimentieren mit Patienten aus psychiatrischen Anstalten, der Umgang mit diesen Kranken im Dritten Reich. Aber auch die Entdeckung der Quantenphysik und die damit verbundene Erkenntnis, dass Wissenschaftler damit ihrer Objektivität beraubt wurden. Sington schildert all dies überzeugend und wohl auch wahrheitsgetreu, doch manche der angerissenen Themen enden (vermutlich aufgrund der Vielzahl) bedauerlicherweise im Nirgendwo.
Dennoch: Es ist ein gut unterhaltendes und ebenso geschriebenes Buch (aber wahrlich kein Thriller, wie der Klappentext behauptet), aus dem man sicherlich auch manches Neue zum Thema Psychiatrie und Quantenphysik erfährt. Leicht zu lesen, aber nie seicht. Und wer weiß, vielleicht war das mit Albert Einstein tatsächlich so...?
August 19, 2012
An interesting tale set in 1933 Berlin. A young girl found naked in nearly dead in the woods near Potsdam with no memory and the only clue to her identity a handbill to a lecture to be given by Albert Einstein. Psychiatrist Martin Kirsch takes her case and ends up struggling to keep his position as he comes at odds with the new Nazi government. He struggles take him across Europe as he abandons friends, family and his fiance in his attempt to help the girl and to figure out her strange connection with the noted scientist.
April 29, 2011
an amazing historic thriller...
March 16, 2013
Splendid! Utterly splendid - Sington's book is indeed a wonderful one!
November 17, 2013
If you've read Einstein's bio, this is a must. Fabulous plot line. I like the depth of the characters, and the way in which the story throws you off balance in various places.
August 1, 2014
A good novel that succeeds mixing: Germany between IWW and Hitler's nomination as prime minister, psychiatry, a hint on relativity and quantum physics, the "dark side" of Dr. Einstein's family.
March 28, 2017
A clever, thoughtful, and interesting story, based on a what-if scenario from an all but forgotten incident in Albert Einstein's early life. What begins as a (missing persons and possibly murder?) mystery gradually meanders through an exploration of early 20th-century theories of insanity and its treatment, the rising power of the Nazis in early 1930s Germany and their determination to weed out supposedly heritable mental conditions, and the Great War's shadow in the form of a dead brother whose parting gift of a book on Einstein's theories of relativity forms part of the main character's motivation for pursuing the case of an amnesiac woman found with a copy of an announcement for one of Einstein's public lectures. The character's attempt to walk a fine line between exploiting the too-close connections of his fiancée's family to the rising powers while trying to save the woman from both his colleagues' brutal medical treatments and the new regime's directives on patients with psychiatric conditions never quite turns the book into a detailed historical or political thriller. It does, however, provide an illuminating backdrop for his final journey across Europe in pursuit of the woman's past and in flight from the continent's future. The final cadenza at the end of the book necessitates a re-reading of the very opening sections but in the process provides an alternate-universes sensation that is appropriate to the book's brief but important physics-related themes.
August 28, 2014
The Einstein Girl is overall a touching, intelligent romance set in historical Berlin. As the main character Martin Kirsch, a psychiatrist, falls in love with his patient the story reveals acute insights on psychiatry/psychology and its limitations that could easily be as true today as they were then.
There's also a glimpse into the mind of someone almost losing his grip on reality - it carefully and compassionately shows how and why such a 'descent into madness' can happen to people sometimes. At times there are also grim, repugnant descriptions of how the patients were treated and related subplots about the personal and controversial side of Albert Einstein's life.
It took me longer than I expected to finish this book because I wanted to understand it properly - a bit like a murder mystery it needed to be followed carefully with all its intertwined subplots unravelled, at times ,however, it was also quite predictable but no less of a good read for that at all.
There's also a glimpse into the mind of someone almost losing his grip on reality - it carefully and compassionately shows how and why such a 'descent into madness' can happen to people sometimes. At times there are also grim, repugnant descriptions of how the patients were treated and related subplots about the personal and controversial side of Albert Einstein's life.
It took me longer than I expected to finish this book because I wanted to understand it properly - a bit like a murder mystery it needed to be followed carefully with all its intertwined subplots unravelled, at times ,however, it was also quite predictable but no less of a good read for that at all.
November 30, 2017
The stylistic devices employed in telling the story are quite captivating. Historical and current events are interwoven into a single continuum giving the past freshness of the present and vice-versa. The book tells the story of World War Two in a rather rare perspective on how the German society justified and supported the invasion of the Soviet Union and other smaller states. With it comes the psychotic details on the endeavors of Martin Kirsch while treating 'terminally insane' patients. At the end it is a tragedy as Albert Einstein is drawn in to the plot.
April 3, 2011
The superb storytelling, gr8 characters both real and fictional. especially historical notes at the end which inform us about 400.000 people who underwent sterilisation and 250.000 mentally and physically handicaped people who were murdered by Nazi regime.
November 2, 2016
An intriguing historical thriller with some fascinating background on Hitler's rise to power in 1933 and the use of psychiatry at the time. Also fascinating is the debunking of some of Einstein's saintly aura. Nicely plotted too.
July 28, 2011
gripping good and smart
June 12, 2015
Addictive historical fiction with a side of madness. Fun and thought provoking.
February 17, 2017
For a book with no murders there was an awful lot of suspense with the big mystery hanging over till the end. Loved it.
May 8, 2021
Beautiful and interesting book!
August 20, 2023
A brilliant book. Beautifully written. Highly recommended.
June 8, 2013
Im Wald von Caputh in der Nähe von Berlin finden 1932 zwei Jugendliche eine verletzte Frau. Als die Unbekannte aus der Bewusstlosigkeit erwacht, gibt sie an, sich an nichts mehr erinnern zu können. An der Erinnerungslücke meldet zumindest der Ermittler der Polizei Zweifel an; denn die Frau zeigt nur geringe Spuren körperlicher Verletzungen. Wegen ihrer Wahnvorstellungen wird die Unbekannte in der Psychiatrie der Berliner Charité behandelt. Um die Patientin sorgt sich auffällig der junge Psychiater Martin Kirsch. Einziges Indiz, das die Vergangenheit der Unbekannten enthüllen könnte, ist ein Fetzen Papier, auf dem noch die Ankündigung zu einem Vortrag Albert Einsteins zu erkennen ist. Die Frau, die sich selbst Maria nennt, wird deshalb in der Klinik das Einsteinmädchen genannt.
Kirsch ist sich sicher, dass seine neue Patientin keine so einfache oder gar mittellose Frau sein kann, wie sein Kollege Brenner annimmt. Kirsch darf nicht zu erkennen geben, dass er die geheimnisvolle Unbekannte schon vorher getroffen hat, wenn er seine zukünftige Karriere und die geplante Ehe mit seiner Verlobten Alma nicht gefährden will. Bereits mit seiner deutlichen Kritik an den Behandlungsmethoden seines Chefarztes hat Martin Kirsch sich in der Klinik in eine Außenseiterposition gebracht. Sington führt seine Leser nun auf den Spuren des jungen Mediziners ins ehemalige Scheunenviertel, in dem "Maria" gelebt hat, und zugleich in Martins Vergangenheit als Feldarzt im Ersten Weltkrieg. Martins Kriegserlebnisse und seine Auseinandersetzung mit dem Schicksal seines im Krieg vermissten jüngeren Bruders deuten daraufhin, dass der junge Psychiater seinen Patienten näher ist, als er sich selbst eingesteht. Wie Martin, der Mann mit den zwei Gesichtern, mit seiner bürgerlichen Existenz pokert, hat mich sehr viel stärker interessiert und gefesselt als das Schicksal der geheimnisvollen Unbekannten.
Die raffinierte Verschachtelung mehrerer persönlicher Geheimnisse mit Manuskript-Auszügen aus der Feder unterschiedlicher Personen schärft die Aufmerksamkeit für die spannende Geschichte. Mit dem historischen Hintergrund der 30er Jahre und den realen Personen Albert, Milena und Eduard Einstein führt Philip Sington seine Leser kenntnisreich ins Berlin des entstehenden Nationalsozialismus. Mit knappen Hinweisen auf historische Ereignisse (die Bücherverbrennung im Mai 1933 z. B.) wird man angeregt, sich in die einzelnen Personen des Romans hineinzuversetzen und sich zu fragen, wie viel sie damals von den Tagesereignissen erfahren haben. Den Stand des Wissens über psychische Erkrankungen zu Beginn des vorigen Jahrhunderts verdeutlicht der Autor am Beispiel der Schizophrenie und am Schicksal eines Patienten, der durch Kriegereignisse traumatisiert wurde. Zu Kirschs Zeiten hatte sich die Medizin zwar mit der Suche nach Heilungsmöglichkeiten beschäftigt, aber noch kaum nach den Ursachen psychischer Erkrankungen geforscht. Ein Stellenangebot, das Martin Kirsch erhält, weist auf die gerade entstehende Rassenforschung und ihre Suche nach der Vererblichkeit von "Geisteskrankheiten" hin.
Neben der raffiniert komponierten Handlung waren die sorgfältig formulierten eingeschobenen Manuskripte und Briefe für mich der stärkste Anreiz, das Buch zu lesen. Die geschärfte Aufmerksamkeit, mit der man beim Lesen nach feinen Zwischentönen und kleinsten Indizien aus dem Leben des geheimnisvollen Einsteinmädchen sucht, deckt leider auch flüchtig gearbeitete Passagen des Buches auf. Für die Zeit unpassende Ausdrücke (hat man sich damals in wörtlicher Rede gewünscht, eine Auszeit zu nehmen?) und nicht zu Ende gedachte Beschreibungen von Details unterbrechen an einigen Stellen den Lesefluss. Singtons spannende Geschichte aus dem Umfeld der Familie Einstein empfehle ich allen, die Freude an Romanen mit ausgezeichnet recherchierter historischer Kulisse haben.
Kirsch ist sich sicher, dass seine neue Patientin keine so einfache oder gar mittellose Frau sein kann, wie sein Kollege Brenner annimmt. Kirsch darf nicht zu erkennen geben, dass er die geheimnisvolle Unbekannte schon vorher getroffen hat, wenn er seine zukünftige Karriere und die geplante Ehe mit seiner Verlobten Alma nicht gefährden will. Bereits mit seiner deutlichen Kritik an den Behandlungsmethoden seines Chefarztes hat Martin Kirsch sich in der Klinik in eine Außenseiterposition gebracht. Sington führt seine Leser nun auf den Spuren des jungen Mediziners ins ehemalige Scheunenviertel, in dem "Maria" gelebt hat, und zugleich in Martins Vergangenheit als Feldarzt im Ersten Weltkrieg. Martins Kriegserlebnisse und seine Auseinandersetzung mit dem Schicksal seines im Krieg vermissten jüngeren Bruders deuten daraufhin, dass der junge Psychiater seinen Patienten näher ist, als er sich selbst eingesteht. Wie Martin, der Mann mit den zwei Gesichtern, mit seiner bürgerlichen Existenz pokert, hat mich sehr viel stärker interessiert und gefesselt als das Schicksal der geheimnisvollen Unbekannten.
Die raffinierte Verschachtelung mehrerer persönlicher Geheimnisse mit Manuskript-Auszügen aus der Feder unterschiedlicher Personen schärft die Aufmerksamkeit für die spannende Geschichte. Mit dem historischen Hintergrund der 30er Jahre und den realen Personen Albert, Milena und Eduard Einstein führt Philip Sington seine Leser kenntnisreich ins Berlin des entstehenden Nationalsozialismus. Mit knappen Hinweisen auf historische Ereignisse (die Bücherverbrennung im Mai 1933 z. B.) wird man angeregt, sich in die einzelnen Personen des Romans hineinzuversetzen und sich zu fragen, wie viel sie damals von den Tagesereignissen erfahren haben. Den Stand des Wissens über psychische Erkrankungen zu Beginn des vorigen Jahrhunderts verdeutlicht der Autor am Beispiel der Schizophrenie und am Schicksal eines Patienten, der durch Kriegereignisse traumatisiert wurde. Zu Kirschs Zeiten hatte sich die Medizin zwar mit der Suche nach Heilungsmöglichkeiten beschäftigt, aber noch kaum nach den Ursachen psychischer Erkrankungen geforscht. Ein Stellenangebot, das Martin Kirsch erhält, weist auf die gerade entstehende Rassenforschung und ihre Suche nach der Vererblichkeit von "Geisteskrankheiten" hin.
Neben der raffiniert komponierten Handlung waren die sorgfältig formulierten eingeschobenen Manuskripte und Briefe für mich der stärkste Anreiz, das Buch zu lesen. Die geschärfte Aufmerksamkeit, mit der man beim Lesen nach feinen Zwischentönen und kleinsten Indizien aus dem Leben des geheimnisvollen Einsteinmädchen sucht, deckt leider auch flüchtig gearbeitete Passagen des Buches auf. Für die Zeit unpassende Ausdrücke (hat man sich damals in wörtlicher Rede gewünscht, eine Auszeit zu nehmen?) und nicht zu Ende gedachte Beschreibungen von Details unterbrechen an einigen Stellen den Lesefluss. Singtons spannende Geschichte aus dem Umfeld der Familie Einstein empfehle ich allen, die Freude an Romanen mit ausgezeichnet recherchierter historischer Kulisse haben.
May 3, 2015
Thriller de ambientación histórica que destaca por descubrir para los ignorantes (como yo), algunas de las facetas más desconocidas, frívolas y acaso oscuras de la vida de Albert Einstein, si bien lo hace sin centrarse en exceso en la figura del científico, sino en las de parientes y allegados. Todo ello en un momento de la Historia tan atractivo como lo es la ascención de Hitler al poder, con el consiguiente clima de tensión y antisemitismo que en dicho momento se respiraba.
A destacar también la vertiente psicológica-psiquiátrica de la historia, puesto que nuestro principal protagonista es un doctor en psiquiatría que también padece más de una enfermedad de cuerpo y alma... y que por sí mismo resulta tan interesante como todo el misterio que envuelve a la 'Chica Einstein' que da nombre a la novela.
Grandes personajes, que mantienen en lo más alto una novela que, si se mira más de cerca, y sobre todo en retrospectiva, no es sino un thriller más: un tanto conspiranóico, que es lo que toca... pero, eso sí, bien escrito y mejor documentado.
A destacar también la vertiente psicológica-psiquiátrica de la historia, puesto que nuestro principal protagonista es un doctor en psiquiatría que también padece más de una enfermedad de cuerpo y alma... y que por sí mismo resulta tan interesante como todo el misterio que envuelve a la 'Chica Einstein' que da nombre a la novela.
Grandes personajes, que mantienen en lo más alto una novela que, si se mira más de cerca, y sobre todo en retrospectiva, no es sino un thriller más: un tanto conspiranóico, que es lo que toca... pero, eso sí, bien escrito y mejor documentado.
August 28, 2009
Highly original historical mystery that takes readers (in a refreshingly readable way) to the bleak frontiers of human knowledge. The juxtaposition of the search for truth (both about the universe and the human mind) with human cruelty and ignorance is powerful, and the plot itself is full of surprises. Highly recommended.
July 8, 2014
'Einstein Girl' is a superb page turner that makes you wonder each page what'll happen next to Dr. Martin Kirsch and his patient. The brief cameo of Albert Einstein makes everything even more interesting!
Kudos, Philip Sington!
Kudos, Philip Sington!
June 23, 2018
Great plot which riffs on the theories of quantum mechanics whilst weaving in historical context between the two world wars and the woeful state of mental health treatment in the period. Well-written,, interesting characters, and twists and turns until the very last page. What’s not to like?
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