Theory of sorrow

It is 1914, the eve of the First World War. Mileva Einstein has just arrived in Berlin with her two young sons to join her husband, the most celebrated scientist of the 20th century, Albert Einstein. He has finally found a university position worthy of his talents.

And then she receives a letter from him outlining “Conditions” he expects her to uphold in order to continue their relationship, and her already difficult life is completely upended.

She refuses to submit, instead leaving Berlin with her two sons and her enormous burden of grief, with all the slights and setbacks that she has previously faced and will face in the future.

Mileva Einstein, née Marić, always outstanding yet always an outsider, from a wealthy family in Vojvodina, a territory of Austria-Hungary at the time, was destined for the greatest scientific achievements—a brilliant mathematician, only the fifth woman to attend the elite and demanding Zurich Polytechnic School.

But her theory of sorrow was as weighty as any theory of relativity, and far more commonly experienced. She bore no end of grief—from her earliest days because of a disabling limp, through loss and disappointment as a young woman, to her setting her own ambitions aside for the sake of her husband Albert’s career, then the breakup of their marriage, near destitution, illness and the illness of her younger son.

In this fictional interior portrait based on the historical record, Slavenka Drakulić brings Mileva Marić Einstein to life. Theory of Sorrow is an attempt to understand the decisions and actions and ultimate trajectory of this woman of exceptional intelligence and promise.