The story is usually set in the first half of the 14th century, but Kehlmann has chosen to update it to the Thirty Years War (1618-48), a high-risk strategy because it means he's setting himself up to be compared to some of the most distinguished works in the German canon. The tale of the itinerant prankster Tyll Eulenspiegel (spelled in a million different ways.) has a similar sort of standing in German folklore to that of Robin Hood in England - written versions of the story go back at least to the earliest printed chapbooks, and places all over Germany claim associations with him, but no-one has ever found any convincing evidence that he really existed.

Translated from the German by Ross Benjamin Read more 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.

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. After Tyll flees with the baker’s daughter, he falls in with a traveling performer who teaches him his trade. 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. The New York Times Best Historical Fiction of 2020ĭaniel 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.

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