Einstein's Dreams

Alan Lightman’s

“Einstein’s Dreams”

"For those of us who believe in physics, this separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however tenacious." Albert Einstein

For sure, one of the most important and discussed man of the 20th century is Albert Einstein - may be the most eminent German Jew. And many were the authors trying to describe the life and deeds of this prominent man. But one surely differs from the others in NOT trying to describe Einstein’s life but imagine his dreams. His name is Alan Lightman and the book that does deserve this examination is “Einstein’s Dreams”.

First I must say a few words about the author. Mr. Lightman was born in United States of America, in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1948 and he is the oldest of four sons. His father owned a movie theater while his mother was a dance teacher. At young age he was interested in both science and arts. He majored physics at Princeton College and at the California Institute of Technology. His previous books include “Time Travel and Papa Joe’s Pipe”, “A Modern-Day Yankee in a Connecticut Court”, “Origins”, “Ancient Light”, “Great Ideas in Physics” and “Time for the Stars”. “Einstein’s Dreams” is his first work of fiction. He teaches physics and writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman imagines 30 worlds where time flows differently from our own. The book depicts Einstein's "flight from wonder" as he tries to uncover the nature of time in the world that surrounds us. It is about a short period of time of the early ages of Albert Einstein who is the principal character. The particularity of the book is that it does not describe the everyday life of the genius, but the “everynight”. It means that during the greater part of the book Einstein is dreaming, and his dreams are depicted by third person that doesn’t