Ratings13
Average rating3.8
FINALISTA DEL PREMIO MAN BOOKER INTERNACIONAL 2020 Una novela monumental sobre un loco ilustre de la tradición literaria europea. Daniel Kehlmann firma con Tyll una entretenida novela épica de aventuras y una gran historia sobre el poder del arte y la devastación de la guerra. Daniel Kehlmann reinventa la novela histórica con esta biografía ficcionada de un personaje legendario del folclore alemán: Tyll Ulenspiegel. Vagabundo, artista y provocador, nació en el año 1600 en un ambiente de pobreza y violencia. Siendo niño, descubre su habilidad para entretener a la gente, el funambulismo y hacer malabares. Su padre, un molinero que es también mago, empirista y curandero, levanta las sospechas de los jesuitas y es acusado de brujería. Tyll se ve obligado a escapar junto a Nele, la hija del panadero. Empieza así un viaje a través de un país devastado por la Guerra de los Treinta Años en el que Kehlmann teje con maestría una red de destinos conectados, un elenco de personajes fascinantes que protagonizan esta epopeya monumental y cómica. Entre otros, un joven escritor que desea descubrir cómo es realmente la guerra, un verdugo melancólico, un burro que habla, un médico poeta, un jesuita fanático, un sabio que falsificó los resultados de sus experimentos científicos y Federico V e Isabel de Estuardo, los gobernantes exiliados de Bohemia cuyos errores desataron la guerra. Con esta fusión de ficción histórica, picaresca y realismo mágico que se lee como un entretenido libro épico de aventuras, Daniel Kehlmann ha sido comparado con Umberto Eco y se ha situado como el nuevo embajador de la literatura alemana. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE A major new novel by Daniel Kehlmann. The vagrant, actor, entertainer and provocateur Tyll Ulenspiegel is born in the early 1600s. Tyll’s father, a miller, is also a magician and explorer, and soon arouses the ire of the village churchmen. Tyll is forced to flee, accompanied by Nele, the baker’s daughter. During his travels through a country devastated by the Thirty Years’ War he meets both ordinary people and great souls. These include the young academic and writer Martin von Wolkenstein, who’s dying to find out what war is really like; the melancholic executioner Tilman; Pirmin, the juggler; Origines, the talking donkey; the exiled rulers of Bohemia, Elizabeth and Friedrich, whose mistakes sparked this great war; the doctor Paul Fleming, whose bizarre plan is to write poems in German; and, not least, the fanatical Jesuit Tesimond and Athanasius Kircher, the renowned sage whose biggest secret is that he forged the startling results of his scientific experiments. Their stories come together in a spellbinding narrative, and an epic re-imagining of the Thirty Years’ War. And who should this violent whirlwind envelop in its fury if not Tyll, the well-known prankster who one day decides to become immortal? “My favourite German novelist.” -Ian McEwan, Sunday Times
Reviews with the most likes.
Herky-jerky translation. No plot to be detected. Not worth finishing
The dark tale of Europe's Thirty Years' War alongside the tale of famous cruel court jester Tyll Ulenspiegel, all told in Kehlmann's sly and humorous prose. The chapters are out of order chronologically, and feature different protagonists - from fallen monarchs, alchemists and scholars, vagrants, acrobats, melancholy executioners, to Origenes the talking donkey - but all parts are tied together by Tyll's appearance. We learn of his youth and the scars that marked him, the guilt and grudge remaining from his father's court case, the apprenticeship with the abusive juggler, the assault in a dark forest (!). Besides balancing on ropes, singing and dancing, Tyll also learns to read people and to use that skill to ridicule and expose them. His performances are highly entertaining and joyful until they take an evil turn. And yet he's only cruel to those who deserve it. The narration expertly shies away from revealing Tyll's feelings, but they are there under the surface, wonderfully nuanced.
Debating between 4 and 5 stars. This is a very grand, elegant and entertaining book. If I had to criticise something, it would be that everything becomes more lucid and dazzling once Tyll appears on the scene. Besides Athanasius Kircher there aren't that many 17th century personas I recognised, I imagine I could have appreciated some of them more.