Einstein's Monsters

An ex-circus strongman, veteran of Warsaw, 1939, and Notting Hill rough-justice artist, meets his own personal holocaust and ''Einsteinian'' destiny; maximum boredom and minimum love-making are advised in a 2020 epidemic; a virulent new strain of schizophrenia overwhelms the young son of a ''father of the nuclear age''; evolution takes a rebarbative turn in a Kafkaesque love story; and the history of the earth is frankly discussed by one who has witnessed it all.

The stories in this collection form a unity and reveal a deep preoccupation: ''"Einstein''s Monsters" refers to nuclear weapons but also to ourselves,'' writes Amis in his enlightening introductory essay, ''We are Einstein''s monsters: not fully human, not for now.''