The third in Stuart Clark's accessible and informative Sky's Dark Labyrinth series, where he uses historical fiction to help readers better understand the cosmos. Based on the true story of Albert Einstein and George Lemaître, a devout catholic and physicist who proved, using Einstein’s own maths, the theoretical proof of the Big Bang - a scientific ‘genesis’.
Europe is marching blindly into the First World War and Berlin is in a storm of nationalist marches and army recruitment. Albert Einstein anticipates the carnage to come when his university colleagues begin work on poison gas to 'shorten the war'. He is also struggling with the collapse of his marriage in the wake of an illicit affair. Increasingly isolated, Einstein finds his academic work sidelined with few people entertaining his outlandish new way of understanding the universe. Meanwhile, in the trenches of the western front, a devoutly religious young Belgian Georges Lemaitre vows to become both a physicist and a Catholic priest if he survives. When the war ends, Einstein does make his breakthrough and is thrust into the international limelight. Lemaitre confronts him with a startling concept: that buried in the maths of the theory of relativity is a beginning of space and time, a moment when the universe came into existence - a day without yesterday. But can the priest be trusted? Or is he simply trying to foist a version of Biblical Genesis onto Einstein's now world famous theory.
‘Sit under the stars and wonder, not just at their eternal beauty and mystery, but at the courage of the men who risked their lives so we could understand them’ – Daily Mail
‘The best historical fiction goes beyond dates and events, giving historical figures emotions, achievements and failings. This is very much the case here,’ – We Love This Book
Author
About Stuart Clark
Stuart Clark is a widely read astronomy journalist whose career is devoted to presenting the complex world of astronomy to the general public. Stuart holds a first class honours degree and a PhD in astrophysics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a former Vice Chair of the Association of British Science Writers and is the cosmology consultant for New Scientist. In 2000 The Independent placed him alongside Stephen Hawking and the Astronomer Royal, Professor Sir Martin Rees, as one of the ‘stars’ of British astrophysics teaching.
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