In this week's Endnotes, we take a look at Einstein in Kafkaland (Bloomsbury, Aug.), the new graphic novel from New Yorker cartoonist Ken Krimstein. In a starred review, PW said:"Irreverent yet full of tenderness for its subjects, Krimstein’s experiment is a dizzying delight.
Here's how the book came together.
Nancy Miller, Publishing Director, Adult Trade, Bloomsbury
“As soon as Ken and his agent, Jennifer Lyons, came to me proposing a story of Einstein, Kafka, and Prague, I was in. I knew that Ken’s talent for combining biography with the best kind of cultural history, along with stunning visuals would allow the reader to discover anew these two men whom one would think there is nothing more to say about, and to witness the birth of the modern era in a way never before imagined.”
Ken Krimstein, Author
“My initial insight was to deal with Einstein less as a scientist and more as a product of German expressionism. I quickly discovered that a young Albert Einstein and an even younger Franz Kafka were part of the same artistic and literary scene in, of all places, Prague—and, blam! Kafka? Einstein? Golems? I had it. Now all I had to do was learn physics, go to Prague, read everything I could, and draw like crazy.”
Katya Mezhibovskaya, Associate Art Director, Adult Trade, Bloomsbury
“When I first met Ken, he was already passing out cards promoting the forthcoming book with the drawing of a tumbling Einstein. I knew that this was the cover. This falling Einstein just needed a context around him—I decided Prague would make sense. The illustration of the upside-down, checkered-suited scientist is different each time it appears in the book: on the cover, the title page, on page 25, as the narrative is so much about visible and invisible transformations.”
