Daniel Kehlmann is a German/Austrian author of novels and plays who is probably best known; at least amongst English-speaking readers for Measuring the World; which was an historical novel featuring two famous German scientists of the enlightenment Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich Gauss and while it explores ideas of science and mathematics it is at heart a novel of wonderfully realised characters and powerful storytelling. Tyll is an excellent follow up to this earlier novel, opening nearly two hundred years earlier at the beginning of the Seventeenth Century just as the thirty years war begins and featuring a curious young boy who becomes a legendary figure in German folklore. Tyll is the son of a miller who prefers books to milling and who uses his knowledge to help and to heal his neighbours and friends. When his father is accused of working with the devil Tyll makes his escape and becomes a wandering entertainer. He learns to juggle, to walk a tightrope and to captivate an audience with his tales. He will become a jester who is known throughout the land. On his travels Tyll encounters tricksters and soldiers and society high and low. He even meets The Winter Queen Elizabeth Stewart. Kehlmann explored the enlightenment and the quest for knowledge in Measuring the World and in this novel he examines society as it was before the enlightenment when the fear of death and the tyranny of religion made people cruel and intolerant. The novel is peopled with a varied and intiguing cast of characters and the setting is a magical realist world where superstition and fable are as real and vital as religion and war. A truly enjoyable feast of a novel with a loveable rogue as the central character. Perfect for fans of Kehlmann's previous work and will appeal to fans of Guinevere Glasford or Andrew Miller.
Thank you to Milly Reid at Quercus for sending me a copy. Tyll is published on February 6th
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