The Einstein Prophecy

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As always, I am in debt to my indefatigable agent, Cynthia Manson, for her encouragement throughout this long endeavor.

And I would also like to thank my brilliant editor, Caitlin Alexander, and my very supportive publisher, Jason Kirk, for helping me in so many ways to bring the book to its full fruition. For his help as a translator, I wish to express my gratitude, too, to Mr. Christoph Haas-Heye.

Although much of the book is true to the historical record, some of it is speculation, too — most notably, Einstein’s involvement in the creation of the atom bomb. His discoveries may have laid the groundwork for the atomic age, and he did indeed alert President Roosevelt to the danger of nuclear weapons, but he was later denied a security clearance to work on the Manhattan Project, and there is no evidence to suggest that he had a practical hand in the actual process of developing the bomb. Nor were the Nazis all that far along; although they’d made a good start, once Hitler was warned by his scientists that a nuclear reaction could conceivably backfire and immolate the Reich itself, he decided to prosecute the war the old-fashioned way — with tanks and planes and battleships.

I have also taken some liberties — chronological and geographical — with the Princeton campus, the progress of the war in Europe, and the creation of the Cultural Recovery Commission; modeled on the Monuments Men, this particular group did not exist.

Overall, and as a way of accounting for all my other sins of both omission and commission, I would simply emphasize that this novel is, of course, a flight of fancy (dark fancy at that), and I am very grateful to you, the reader, for coming along.