Einstein's Monsters

An ex-circus strongman, veteran of Warsaw, 1939, and Notting Hill rough-justice artist, meets his own personal holocaust and “Einsteinian” destiny; maximum boredom and minimum love-making are advised in a 2020 epidemic; a virulent new strain of schizophrenia overwhelms the young son of a “father of the nuclear age;” evolution takes a rebarbative turn in a Kafkaesque love story; and the history of the earth is frankly discussed by one who has witnessed it all.The stories in this collection form a unity and reveal a deep preoccupation: “‘Einstein’s Monsters’ refers to nuclear weapons but also to ourselves,” writes Amis in his enlightening introductory essay. “We are Einstein’s monsters: not fully human, not for now.”