“Einstein, you have to choose. Are you going to live in his universe? Or yours?” 

Time is a funny thing isn’t it? Some things feel so long ago while actually being very recent, relatively speaking. 

I mean I can do the math, and rationally speaking I can conceptualize that two geniuses (in their own rights) existed in the same space and time. But on the other hand I am unable to grasp that two geniuses lived parallel lives. 

Prague. 1911-1912. Einstein and Kafka are living their lives and both trying to answer the most profound questions both searching for new ideas. New truths. Einstein using this time to flesh out his theory of general relativity. Kafka using his time to write his first piece “the Judgment” and carving out what it means to be human. 

There are points in this the science gets too dizzying for me, but there’s a beauty. While I may not be able to grasp all of Einstein’s ideas, he was challenging the prevailing theories that have stood for thousands of years. He was having to accept a reality he was not familiar with, and would ultimately change his world. Once you know the new, you may be the same person from a DNA perspective, but in terms of cognition, the old you ceases to exist. You are and you aren’t all at the same time. 

Ultimately a worthwhile graphic novel you can finish in one sitting. There’s wit thrown in and you get to meet some side characters including Einstein’s wife and his intellectual nemesis Max Abraham, all in accompanying watercolour fluid imagery.