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Rosa's Einstein
Rosa’s Einstein is a Latinx retelling of the Brothers Grimm’s Snow-White and Rose-Red, reevaluating border, identity, and immigration narratives through the unlikely amalgamation of physics and fairy tale.
In this full-length poetry collection, the girls of Rosa’s Einstein embark on a quest to discover what is real and what is possible in the realms of imagination, spurred on by scientific curiosity and emotional resilience. Following a structural narrative arc inspired by the archetypal hero’s journey, sisters Rosa and Nieve descend into the desert borderlands of New Mexico to find resolution and healing through a bold and fearless examination of the past, meeting ghostly helpers and hinderers along the way. These metaphorical spirits take the shape of circus performers, scientists, and Lieserl, the lost daughter Albert Einstein gave away.
Poet Jennifer Givhan reimagines the life of Lieserl, weaving her search for her scientist father with Rosa and Nieve’s own search for theirs. Using details both from Einstein’s known life and from quantum physics, Givhan imagines Lieserl in a circus-like landscape of childhood trauma and survival, guided by Rosa and Nieve.
In this full-length poetry collection, the girls of Rosa’s Einstein embark on a quest to discover what is real and what is possible in the realms of imagination, spurred on by scientific curiosity and emotional resilience. Following a structural narrative arc inspired by the archetypal hero’s journey, sisters Rosa and Nieve descend into the desert borderlands of New Mexico to find resolution and healing through a bold and fearless examination of the past, meeting ghostly helpers and hinderers along the way. These metaphorical spirits take the shape of circus performers, scientists, and Lieserl, the lost daughter Albert Einstein gave away.
Poet Jennifer Givhan reimagines the life of Lieserl, weaving her search for her scientist father with Rosa and Nieve’s own search for theirs. Using details both from Einstein’s known life and from quantum physics, Givhan imagines Lieserl in a circus-like landscape of childhood trauma and survival, guided by Rosa and Nieve.
- GenresPoetry
84 pages, Paperback
First published February 19, 2019
About the author
Jennifer Givhan
23 books685 followersJennifer Givhan is a Mexican-American and Indigenous poet and novelist from the Southwestern desert and the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and PEN Emerging Voices. The Los Angeles Times called her novel SALT BONES “a triumph… one of the most masterful marriages of horror, mystery, thriller and literary writing” and it was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, a Book Riot Best Mystery & Thriller of the Year, a Marie Claire Best Mystery-Thriller of the Year, a Library Journal Stellar Selection, and an American Library Association Best Book of the Year.
Her newest novel The Sleeping Sisters is coming this August 18th from Little, Brown.
She holds a Master’s degree from California State University Fullerton and a Master’s in Fine Arts from Warren Wilson College. Her novel TRINITY SIGHT was a finalist for the Arizona-New Mexico Book Awards and won The Southwest Book Award. Her novel RIVER WOMAN, RIVER DEMON was chosen for Amazon’s Book Club and as a National Together We Read Library Pick and was featured on CBS Mornings. It also won an International Latino Book Award.
Her newest novel The Sleeping Sisters is coming this August 18th from Little, Brown.
She holds a Master’s degree from California State University Fullerton and a Master’s in Fine Arts from Warren Wilson College. Her novel TRINITY SIGHT was a finalist for the Arizona-New Mexico Book Awards and won The Southwest Book Award. Her novel RIVER WOMAN, RIVER DEMON was chosen for Amazon’s Book Club and as a National Together We Read Library Pick and was featured on CBS Mornings. It also won an International Latino Book Award.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 18, 2022
It was ok! Had some real good parts but it had some things that I couldn't make complete sense of.
May 10, 2019
I am not creative enough for this book. The words are beautiful, and I believe this is probably wonderful for the kind of poetry/verse book it is. I just can’t follow it or grasp onto what it means. The cover is absolutely gorgeous.
December 1, 2025
Rosa's Einstein is a stunning collection of poems by Jennifer Givhan. The collection is a lyrical, Latine retelling of the Brothers Grimm tale, “Snow White and Rose Red,” blended with story of Lieserl (Albert Einstein’s forgotten daughter). The text blurs the edges between the scientific and the fantastical, offering whispers of hope and healing in a harsh world.
"I believe in the conservation
of bird wings, in tiny packages of light
and their insistence on shining
in the resurrection of dying things."
— from “Lieserl Contemplates Resurrection”
"I believe in the conservation
of bird wings, in tiny packages of light
and their insistence on shining
in the resurrection of dying things."
— from “Lieserl Contemplates Resurrection”
May 7, 2019
I was excited to win this book from Goodreads.
I enjoy both poetry and science, so it sounded intriguing.
But, I just don’t get it...
I tried several times.
I enjoy both poetry and science, so it sounded intriguing.
But, I just don’t get it...
I tried several times.
August 19, 2019
I have heard more than one scientist say the more we learn the weirder it gets, and Rosa's Einstein is a gorgeous in how it plays between science and magic, blurring the lines and creating bigger truths.
Using the mythology of fairy tales, specifically Rose Red and Snow White as well as history and imagined history about Einstein's long lost daughter, Givhan seamlessly creates a narrative that dances both in desert circuses and quiet rooms of scientists and children. Givhan will engage with every part of your brain without becoming inaccessible. This collection will resonate and continue to speak to the mysteries of lore, science, childhood and female friendship with every read.
In the poem Sighting Jennifer Givhan closes the poem with:
a glimpse into the other/world is enough
(you haven't left me alone)
These words reflect my own satisfaction as a reader with the collection's ability to give glimpses and new insight into both familiar and unfamiliar characters. Givhan recreates and re imagines the landscape of both desert and science and leaves the reader with both a sense of camaraderie and the echo of loneliness of, Lieserl, Einstein's missing daughter as an imagined life is returned to one of many women science, history, and fathers forgot.
Using the mythology of fairy tales, specifically Rose Red and Snow White as well as history and imagined history about Einstein's long lost daughter, Givhan seamlessly creates a narrative that dances both in desert circuses and quiet rooms of scientists and children. Givhan will engage with every part of your brain without becoming inaccessible. This collection will resonate and continue to speak to the mysteries of lore, science, childhood and female friendship with every read.
In the poem Sighting Jennifer Givhan closes the poem with:
a glimpse into the other/world is enough
(you haven't left me alone)
These words reflect my own satisfaction as a reader with the collection's ability to give glimpses and new insight into both familiar and unfamiliar characters. Givhan recreates and re imagines the landscape of both desert and science and leaves the reader with both a sense of camaraderie and the echo of loneliness of, Lieserl, Einstein's missing daughter as an imagined life is returned to one of many women science, history, and fathers forgot.
May 14, 2019
I tend not to do well with high-concept poetry collections, and this is about the highest concept I’ve seen yet. Still, I enjoyed many of these poems individually, and that was worth something to me.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews