2017 novel by Daniel Kehlmann
Tyll is a 2017 novel, originally written in German, by the Austrian-German writer Daniel Kehlmann. The book is based, in part, on the folkloristic tales about Till Eulenspiegel, a jester who was the subject of a chapbook in 16th century Germany, as well as on the history of the Thirty Years' War. The book was first published in October 2017 in the original German by Rowohlt Verlag. An English translation by Ross Benjamin was published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Penguin Random House, New York, in February 2020. Between its initial publication in 2017, and its publication in English, "Tyll" had sold almost 600,000 copies in Germany.
Plot.
Kehlmann does not narrate Tyll's story in a linear fashion. The chapter "Shoes" that serves as the novel's prologue tells a tale from the middle of the jester's life.
"Shoes." Deep into the Thirty Years' War Tyll Ulenspiegel arrives in a town where the war had not yet come, along with Nele, an old woman, and the donkey. The inhabitants of the town recognize Tyll from his widespread fame, even though they had never seen him before. Tyll and Nele perform to great applause. The performance culminates in a high-wire act, through which Tyll initiates a prank that causes violent upheaval.
"The Lord of the Air." This chapter presents the actual beginning of the narrative. The reader encounters his father Claus Ulenspiegel, the miller of their town, who is not like the others: he is able to read, loves books, and desires to study the mysteries of the world. Tyll's father is accused of witchcraft, which results in his trial, conviction, and execution. Knowing his prior life is now gone, Tyll asks Nele to join him as they leave the village forever. 
"Zusmarshausen." It is nearly the end of the war, and it has come to the Emperor's attention that the "famous jester" (i.e. Tyll) has found shelter in the heavily damaged Andechs Abbey. The Emperor gives the task of finding Ulenspiegel and bringing him back to Vienna to the not quite 25 years old Martin von Wolkenstein. 
"Kings in Winter." Elizabeth Stuart and her husband have suffered an ill fate as the King and Queen of Bohemia. During her and Friedrich's exile in The Hague in the Netherlands, a jester (Tyll) and his female companion (Nele) appear and ask for employment.
“Hunger.” After leaving their home village, Tyll and Nele are traveling with the cruel Pirmin, who is teaching the children the trade of a performer.
“The Great Art of Light and Shadow.” Kircher, a court mathematician, and an assistant join a quest for dragon's blood.
“In the Shaft.” A commandant tells Tyll he must join a unit of soldiers. Feeling he would be safe from bullets underground, Tyll chooses to become a miner. 
“Westphalia.” The Winter Queen appears in Osnabrück to reclaim the electoral dignity of the Palatinate for her son.
Critical reception.
The reception of the novel upon its publication in the German-speaking countries was largely positive. Roman Bucheli of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung called Kehlmann's novel a "masterpiece". The critic claims that the book is "more than a novel" because it has chosen "wit and reason," as well as "art and knowledge" as its allies.
Equally enthusiastic was Christoph Bartmann of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" Munich, who sees in Kehlmann's "Tyll" his best book since his bestselling novel "Measuring the World", that appeared in 2005, twelve years earlier.
The novel was published in the United States in a translation by Ross Benjamin, a translator known for translations of novels by Friedrich Hölderlin and Joseph Roth, as well as the diaries by Franz Kafka.
Simon Ings of The Times denotes "Tyll" as "a laugh-outloud-then-weep-into-your-beer comic novel about a war." He goes on to emphasize the parallels between Kehlmann's novel, which the writer bases on transferring Till Eulenspiegel's story into the era of the Thirty Years' War, and another novel actually written about that exact same era and published twenty years after the end of the war, "Simplicius Simplicissimus" by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1668).
Reviewing Kehlmann's novel for the Washington Post, the novelist Jon Michaud comments on the structure of "Tyll": "Each chapter functions as a self-contained short story or novella with recurring themes and characters tying the whole together. Some are more successful than others, and the best are transfixing."
Television adaptation.
The novel is currently being adapted into a television series for Netflix. The adaptation will be produced by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, the showrunners of "Dark".
References.
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