Tyll. Daniel Kehlmann

Daniel Kehlmann is one of the most famous modern authors writing in German. And his novel "Til" is a masterfully composed mixture of Western European folklore, fiction and real historical events of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which covered almost all European countries. Til Ulenspiegel, the hero of medieval legends, a trickster, provocateur and mocker, the embodiment of the rebellious spirit, is transferred by the writer to the 17th century, to the lands of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, disfigured by endless ruin. The hero, who has lost his father and mother, but has sworn never to die, in his wanderings through the ashes of the former world, encounters wandering actors and kings who have lost their crowns, executioners and learned men, poets and inquisitors, and his faithful companion remains the baker's daughter Nele. The writer's skill mysteriously connects and links all these destinies, and the reader is presented with the true fabric of that cruel time.