Daniel Kehlmann

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Tyll

FÖR FÖRSTA GÅNGEN sedan den internationellt hyllade "Världens mått" (2007) återvänder Daniel Kehlmann till den historiska romanen och blåser liv i en gåtfull figur i den tyska folkloren. Tyll Ulenspiegels kringflackande liv som narr och sanningssägare sträcker sig över en epok och ett Europa präglat av ett ständigt krigstillstånd. Skärvor och skrönor fogas samman till en rik fresk över det trettioåriga krigets historia, där den mytomspunne Tyll Ulenspiegel alltid tycks dyka upp på ett hörn. Han möter såväl tidens huvud- som biroller - från den myndige kung Gustav II Adolf till den talande åsnan Origenes. "Tyll" är en underhållande, spränglärd och storslagen pikareskroman om förställningskonstens makt och krigets förstörande kraft.

He's a trickster, a player, a jester. His handshake's like a pact with the devil, his smile like a crack in the clouds; he's watching you now and he's gone when you turn. Tyll Ulenspiegel is here! In a village like every other village in Germany, a scrawny boy balances on a rope between two trees. He's practising. He practises by the mill, by the blacksmiths; he practises in the forest at night, where the Cold Woman whispers and goblins roam. When he comes out, he will never be the same. Tyll will escape the ordinary villages. In the mines he will defy death. On the battlefield he will run faster than cannonballs. In the courts he will trick the heads of state. As a travelling entertainer, his journey will take him across the land and into the heart of a never-ending war. A prince's doomed acceptance of the Bohemian throne has European armies lurching brutally for dominion and now the Winter King casts a sunless pall. Between the quests of fat counts, witch-hunters and scheming queens, Tyll dances his mocking fugue; exposing the folly of kings and the wisdom of fools. With macabre humour and moving humanity, Daniel Kehlmann lifts this legend from medieval German folklore and enters him on the stage of the Thirty Years' War. When citizens become the playthings of politics and puppetry, Tyll, in his demonic grace and his thirst for freedom, is the very spirit of rebellion - a cork in water, a laugh in the dark, a hero for all time.