Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann review / Plague, war and practical jokes

 

BOOKS OF THE YEAR

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Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann review – plague, war and practical jokes

The talented Austro-German has created a dazzling, picaresque romp but he squanders the potential of his best character

Anthony Cummins
Tue 18 Feb 2020 07.00 GMT

T

ime and again, Daniel Kehlmann’s novels feature an artist whose success depends on leaving his wife and children. (His last book broke with the formula to follow a harassed screenwriter on holiday with his family; it’s called You Should Have Left.) The creative travails of men, and the collateral damage they inflict, may not seem a surefire draw for book-buyers, yet Kehlmann, who writes in German, is translated into more than 40 languages – he’s fun to read, and his books travel light, uncluttered by cultural references.

In His New Book, Daniel Kehlmann Says Hello to a Cruel World

BOOKS OF THE YEAR

In His New Book, Daniel Kehlmann Says Hello to a Cruel World

“Tyll,” a best-selling novel in Germany and soon to be a Netflix series, is set in the dark times its author couldn’t get out of his head.

Tobias Grey

February 3, 2020

BERLIN — When Daniel Kehlmann read the news that the former Nissan executive Carlos Ghosn, facing financial misconduct charges in Japan, fled the country in a box, he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of admiration.

It was the kind of caper that he might have written into one of his novels, where escape artists, pranksters or con men often outwit their adversaries. For example: “Tyll,” his latest book, which Pantheon will publish in an English translation by Ross Benjamin on Feb. 11. It has sold nearly 600,000 copies in Germany since it was published there in 2017, and is being adapted by Netflix as a television series.

Daniel Kehlmann’s new book, “Tyll,” is set in the 1600s, and his best seller “Measuring the World” takes place in the 19th century. “It might sound very weird now, but I actually don’t like historical novels,” he says.Credit...Vincent Tullo for The New York Times

“Tyll” transmits the 14th-century tale of the jester Tyll Ulenspiegel about 300 years into the future, plopping him into the Thirty Years’ War. Tyll travels through a Europe devastated by conflict, encountering fraudsters, soldiers and royalty, including Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia, whose love of Shakespeare chimes with Tyll’s own sense of theatrical spectacle.