A real fascination in words and speech the novel is like a journey to the magic land. The magic and adventure is in the air all the way though no one practices it a lot but it is in the talk all the time. Daniel Kehlmann writes about some real issues that were there in the 17th century, issues like magic and alchemy.
Such things were forbidden by the church in that era to such an extreme that the one who was found guilty was usually banished or given capital punishment. Tyll’s father was among those found guilty and the little boy had to run away with Nele who was the daughter of town’s baker.
The two found shelter but the man proves no different than Tyll’s father and this time the boy gets the time to learn the tricks in the book and those that were never there in the books. From the middle the book gets the form of travelogue when the boy and girl move from one state to the other and the whole continent is supposed to be in a state of war. The era is described with awesome accuracy; there is no weakness of any sort at any stage and in any of the characters. The novel is loaded with religion, culture and relations between the people both temporary and permanent.
Topics such as the Brothers Grimm are touched though not in too much detail but still the references and relation are ample to set the course. It is Firdous Bamji whose narration makes it better than You Should Have Left otherwise the writing is style is not that much different at any of the stage.
