Some biographers posit she was at least a collaborator others suggest she was the mathematical brains behind his theories, including the theory of special relativity. We also don’t know what role Maric played in Einstein’s academic work. Researchers aren’t sure what happened to the couple’s first child - a daughter named Lieserl, who disappears from the records within two years of her birth.
However, many of the facts about her life are lost in the folds of history. Maric’s story resonated on so many levels. I completed my Ph.D., albeit in political science, and during the year I finished and defended my thesis, I had my first child, albeit while married - but after being warned by a male member of my dissertation committee not to get pregnant. Some of Maric’s struggles are ones I’ve experienced firsthand. The novel ends with the couple’s divorce. Eventually Einstein and Maric get married and raise two sons while reshaping the entire field of physics - and drifting apart.
They fall in love and have an affair she gets pregnant, flunks her exams - twice - and never completes her doctoral degree.
The Other Einstein, a story told through letters, begins as Maric travels from her home in Serbia to study at the university in Zurich, Switzerland, where she soon meets fellow physics student Einstein. Fortunately, one of literature’s great perks is that it enables me to grapple with hard issues in a less stressful setting than politics. Truth has always been a tenuous commodity in politics, but its value currently seems to be at an all-time low. In part, the difficulty is a reflection of my struggle with today’s political climate.
By the end, I was in an all-out battle with the boundaries of truth-stretching. Halfway through the book, though, I began to feel uneasy. So when I came across a historical novel about her, The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict, I jumped on the opportunity to learn more. Watching National Geographic’s period drama, Genius, which in its first season told the story of Albert Einstein, held a fascinating surprise for me: his first wife, Mileva Maric.
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