Philip Sington
Harvill Secker

Two young boys find a beautiful girl naked and close to death in the woods. In a coma, the only clue to the girl’s identity is a ticket she was clutching for admission to an Albert Einstein lecture. Press interest in the mysterious young woman is high; the media dub her “The Einstein Girl”. Eventually awaking from the coma, the Einstein Girl is found to be suffering from amnesia and has no recollection of her identity before the attack. In the absence of her real name, the Einstein moniker sticks.

The Einstein Girl is a beautiful, and at times painful, portrait of love, knowledge and society. The feelings of the young doctor, Martin Kirsch, who falls for the Einstein Girl, are complicated by his moral obligations to his loving fiancée Alma and his role as physician. Intricate research from Sington provides the pitch-perfect context of both German society as a whole, and also the psychological profession, in the months just before Adolph Hitler rises to power. Compelling until the end, The Einstein Girl is a stunning book that culminates with a shockingly dark twist.

Samantha Cracknell