Tyll
Author
Original Work
Translator
Language
Year
2021
Publisher
Country
United States
Pages
352
ISBN
978-0525562726
The New York Times Best Historical Fiction of 2020 The Guardian's Best Fiction of 2020 Thrillist's Best Books of the Year Daniel Kehlmann transports the medieval legend of the trickster Tyll Ulenspiegel to the seventeenth century in an enchanting work of magical realism, macabre humor, and rollicking adventure. Tyll is a scrawny boy growing up in a quiet village until his father, a miller with a forbidden interest in alchemy and magic, is found out by the church. After Tyll flees with the baker’s daughter, he falls in with a traveling performer who teaches him his trade. As a juggler and a jester, Tyll forges his own path through a world devastated by the Thirty Years’ War, evading witch-hunters, escaping a collapsed mine outside a besieged city, and entertaining the exiled King and Queen of Bohemia along the way. The result is both a riveting story and a moving tribute to the power of art in the face of the senseless brutality of history. Translated from the German by Ross Benjamin— Google Books
Press Reviews
- The Guardianby Nina Allan · Jun 2025
This portrait of German film-maker GW Pabst and his moral struggles under the Nazis has the darkness and ambiguity of a modern Grimms’ fairytale
- The Guardianby Ben East · Mar 2021
A jester’s moral crusade in 17th-century Europe; a mute refugee adrift in an English city; and the story of Arthur Conan Doyle and the son of the village vicar<br>
- The Guardianby Justine Jordan · Nov 2020
Hilary Mantel, Ali Smith and Tsitsi Dangarembga completed landmark series, Martin Amis turned to autofiction and Elena Ferrante returned to Naples – plus a host of brilliant debuts
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