First published 2016
Michael Paterniti sits in a Buick Skylark heading west on Interstate 70. In the trunk, Albert Einstein's brain floats in a Tupperware container inside a gray duffel bag. Behind the wheel is Thomas Harvey, an eighty-four-year-old pathologist who performed Einstein's autopsy in 1955 and simply took the brain home. Harvey kept it for over forty years. Now the two men are driving from New Jersey to California, where Einstein's granddaughter Evelyn waits for them. The cross-country journey becomes something more than a simple delivery. Paterniti finds himself caught between Harvey's decades-long obsession and the weight of carrying one of history's most famous minds. As miles pass and conversations unfold, the trip transforms into a meditation on genius, mortality, and the strange corners of American life. The brain rides along as an invisible passenger while Paterniti navigates the absurd reality of his situation.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, contemporary, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, road-trip
Setting: California, Interstate 70, New Jersey
Period: 1955, 1990s
MP3 CD · Brilliance Audio