Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up With the Universe

“pays tribute to two iconic 20th century intellects who held to the courage of their convictions and altered our sense of physical and psychological reality.”

Einstein in Kafkaland is one of the most unusual books to come off the presses this year. Using the form of a graphic biography, it tells the story of a (largely imagined) relationship between Franz Kafka and Albert Einstein during a 16-month period when Einstein taught at a university in Prague while refining his theory of relativity.

At this time, Kafka was working as an insurance executive and, though writing, had yet to publish any of the novels that made him a 20th century literary giant.

According to Krimstein, it is an historical fact that Einstein and Kafka met at a salon hosted by the poet Berta Franca in an apothecary shop on the Old Town Square. Krimstein elects to yank his tale into the realm of pure fantasy by choosing as his narrator the skeleton that adorns the astronomical clock mounted on the wall of the Old Town Hall across the square from the apothecary shop. From that vantage point, the skeleton witnesses the comings and goings of Kafka and Einstein and overhears their conversations.

Einstein is troubled because he has been unable to reconcile his theory of relativity with Newton’s laws of gravity. His theory has come under attack for this deficiency, particularly from his rival, the German physicist Max Abraham. He is also unhappy living in Prague, a city his wife detests, and having to deal with the stiff bureaucratic formalities of the Imperial University, which includes wearing a medal-draped military uniform and carrying a saber, an outfit that galls his pacifism.

The story follows Einstein as he seeks to resolve the apparent contradictions between gravity and relativity. His search leads him to enter a fourth dimension of the physical world, spacetime. This dimension is likened to a rabbit hole into which he falls, like Alice in Wonderland. Alice welcomes Einstein to the fourth dimension, and tells him that he’s entered a realm that operates according to laws that completely transform reality. She says, “Here in 4-D land, you’re not even the same person at the top of your head as you are at your feet.” This revelation frightens Einstein, and propels him back into the familiar 3-D world of Euclid and Newton.

Here, appearing as a disembodied face in the night sky, Kafka intervenes, telling Einstein he must not shrink from pursuing his vision of the truth, even though it confounds conventionally held truths. Kafka sees himself as performing the same groundbreaking role in literature that Einstein is performing in science—a complete break with the past.

A stranger book than Einstein in Kafkaland you’ll rarely see. Krimstein’s graphic style mixes collage and watercolors in black and various shades of green with crude black ink drawings of human figures and shapes from the urban landscape of Prague. The effect is other worldly, as Krimstein surely intended.

The tone of the language that appears in speech bubbles is whimsical and often cheekily informal—except when the narrator explains Einstein’s struggles with his theory. For the lay reader untutored in physics, these explanations are mystifyingly abstruse head scratchers. But they don’t detract from the playful spirit of this book, which pays tribute to two iconic 20th century intellects who held to the courage of their convictions and altered our sense of physical and psychological reality.