ALAN LIGHTMAN

EINSTEIN'S DREAMS, 1993, Warner Books

'There is a place where time stands still. Raindrops hang motionless in air. Pendulums of clocks fload mid-swing....As a traveler approaches this place from any direction, he moves more and more slowly....'

It is 1905 in Berne, Switzerland. A young patent clerk has been dreaming marvelous dreams about the nature of time. He is Albert Einstein and he has almost finished his special theory of relativity. What were his dreams like those last pivotal few months? Here, in this extraordinary and highly acclaimed work by physicist Alan Lightman, thirty fables conjure up as many theoretical realms of time, dreamt in as many nights.

In one world time is circular, its people fated to repeat triumph and trial over and over and over again... in another, men and women try to capture time - which appears as a nightingale - in a bell jar... in yet another, there is no time, only frozen moments. All are visions that gently probe the essence of time, the adventure of creativity, the glory of possibliity, and the beauty of 'Einstein's Dreams.

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