The Other Einstein: A novel

Mileva arrives in Switzerland, where Albert once again fails to understand her feelings. She decides to forge ahead with him for the sake of her new baby. Mileva “chose life. For a successful life with Albert, that meant choosing science. It was the language in which we first communicated and the only one Albert comprehended perfectly” (216). She tells him about her epiphany on the train. Albert is astounded by her discovery and eager to write the paper. Despite her grief over Lieserl, Mileva can’t help but be titillated by her discovery.

The narrative flashes forward to 1905. Albert and Mileva have worked hard collaborating on their papers. The relativity paper is mostly hers, but they’ve also partnered on papers about Brownian motion and atomic theory. They work fastidiously on them at night, after Albert is home from work and when their son, Hans Albert, is asleep. Mileva’s paper on relativity is almost ready to submit, but she includes Albert’s name as an author because she doesn’t have a degree or a doctorate.