Hotel Resting Stork in the spa town of Bad Nauheim has long been a refuge from the turmoil of the day. But its atmosphere of pampered calm is threatened when the German Natural Scientists Conference convenes there in 1920 with over two thousand participants. As the new theory of relativity divides the scientific community, the two fiercest rivals, Albert Einstein and Philipp Lenard—both Nobel Prize winners—check in for the event. Hotel director Herr Kleeberger senses that settling their dispute on the premises would be a public relations coup. But beneath scientific differences lurk unimaginable chasms. Antisemitism flares among the physicists and homoerotic tension emerges between hotel staff, forcing Kleeberger to realize that more is at stake than his resort’s reputation. Author Daniel Mellem, himself a trained physicist, delivers a masterful work of historical fiction, written with subtlety, humor, and contemporary relevance.
