einstein's dreams

Einstein's Dreams is a cute little novel by Alan Lightman, about the dreams Einstein has in the weeks surrounding the publication of his theory of relativity. Lightman imagines Einstein working through various scenarios involving time, and what it would mean if he was wrong. 

 

Night after night, Einstein dreams of how his town and its people might deal with time that runs backwards, or if it skipped around randomly rather than moving always forward. These dreams are nearly all that occurs in this story, other than a short introduction describing Einstein's discussions with his friend Besso, to which he returns to a few times over the weeks, for coffee or lunch, to discuss his dreams. So the novel reads like a dream journal, as dictated to his friend. Each interlude with Besso is also illustrated with a great little townscape--of Bern, presumably--but the illustrator is not credited and I can't find them on the interwebs either.

Lightman digs pretty deep into the science in these little fables of life and how it would be if we knew the future before it arrived, or if we lived backward through time, or in circles, endlessly repeating our lives. Its a fun little book.

 

 

PS: It seems like this book was a popular item for art students and graphic artists to illustrate as a project. Many examples of the artwork this book created are online.