Steffen Kopetzky Grand Tour oder die Nacht der grossen Complication (Grand Tour, or the Night of the Great Complication) Eichborn, February 2002. 740 pp. ISBN 3-8218-0897-7 On one level this novel is the story of two characters: Leo Pardell, former student of architecture now working for a sleeping-car company, and Baron Friedrich von Reichhausen, an immensely rich, elderly lawyer and collector of fine watches. It spans the period from April 1999 to the night of 31 December of that year - that is, to the Millenium. We observe Pardell, a sort of Candide figure, learning the tricks of his trade as a sleeping-car conductor and having a number of picaresque adventures. Simultaneously we follow Reichhausen's quest for a unique watch, the Ziffer à la Grande Complication, which displays not only time, day and month, but also the four digits of the year. At midnight on New Year's Eve, if he can succeed in tracking it down, the lawyer will witness ALL digits moving at once. The idea of the Grand Tour observed through the eyes of a sleeping-car conductor is intriguing and original. So is the contrast between the happy-go-lucky Pardell and the obsessive Reichhausen, whose ambition, if realised, it is clearly implied, will appear merely banal. Innumerable minor characters crop up in the course of what is, intentionally and of necessity, a lengthy and meandering but always fascinating work. Piquancy is added by some scathing authorial comments on matters ostensibly as far off beam as the superficiality of certain modern German literati, unponderous reflections on obsession, time and chance, and references (and cross-references) to other literary works relevant to the construction of this one. Imagine a cross between Jules Verne and Umberto Eco, with Piranesi's prison-haunted dreams inspiring the whole. That this is the brainchild of a highly intelligent and gifted writer is obvious from the start. Enjoy the splendidly eloquent roll-call of those working for 'la Compagnie' - lecturers in classics, French collaborators, small-time crooks and the wayward sons of Italian princes, to name but a few. It is in no way tied to the fact of the Millenium, nor should its considerable length put it out of court. A new voice is speaking here.