Praise

"Kehlmann's shrewd translator, Ross Benjamin, vigorously grasps the offered challenges."

—JAMES WOOD, The New Yorker

"An impeccable English translation by Ross Benjamin."

—The New York Times Book Review

"Thank goodness Ross Benjamin (who also Englished Kehlmann's 2016 novella You Should Have Left, soon to be a film with Kevin Bacon) got the translation gig. He's a comic virtuoso, aping the clotted complexities of court etiquette, there applying nursery words to convey the narrowness of peasant life, and hitting now and again on rhythms that prove hilarious almost regardless of their content."

—The Times (UK)

"German-language novelist Kehlmann, like Tyll, is a trickster and his cheekiness is well served by Ross Benjamin's fluid, stylish translation."

—The Washington Post

"I will have to trust German critics on the quality of the original publication's writing, but I can say the English in Ross Benjamin's translation is fluent and clever. The jesters and traveling players of Tyll sometimes declaim in rhyme and pun; as far as I can tell, Benjamin maintains the sense without losing the wordplay."

—Tor.com

"It’s an episodic and nonlinear approach, and Ross Benjamin’s translation gives a clarity to the individual voices that render their stories — tragedies, for the most part — profoundly humane."

—The Boston Globe

"The narrative moves from myth to historical novel to ballad and back, and Ross Benjamin's translation follows it faithfully."

—The Spectator

"In this robust, flavourful translation by Ross Benjamin, Kehlmann often matches the visceral quality of [Günter] Grass's prose. He has, though, a genial lightness all his own."

—The Financial Times

"Kehlmann's prose (flawlessly translated by Ross Benjamin) is economical and evocative."

—The Sydney Morning Herald