Robert Schneider Kristus Das unerhörte Leben des Jan Beukels (Christ: The Astonishing Life of Jan Beukels) Aufbau-Verlag, September 2004. 608 pp. ISBN 3-351-03013-4 With the advent of the printing press and the translation of the Bible, the world could interpret the Scriptures as it pleased and a myriad of sects were spawned. Among the most notable were the Anabaptists, an extreme branch of which flourished in Münster in 1534-35 and accepted as their ‘king’ a charismatic firebrand called Jan van Leyden, or Jan Beukels. Fired as a child by a Palm Sunday procession depicting the entry of Christ into Jerusalem, Jan decided that he too would like to achieve a similar fame. But his success was followed by a terrible nemesis. The town was besieged, the religious freedom fighter turned into a despot, and the outcome, for him and his followers, was defeat, torture and death. Robert Schneider gained instant and worldwide fame with his first novel, Brother of Sleep, and his powerful and innovative writing is once again evident in this new novel. Focusing on the story of Jan, he brings to life the alien reality of the sixteenth century, with its conflict between absolute ideals and imperfect human nature. Jan’s life in Leyden, his sufferings and adventures in London and Lisbon, the tricks he plays and the ‘calling’ which leads him back to Leyden and then to Münster are told in fast-moving picaresque scenes. Certain key characters recur with haunting effect. Snatches of folk songs, children’s songs, erotic songs and conventicle hymns bridge the years between Jan’s childhood and his dreadful end. Jan is attractive and exploitative, affectionate yet utterly self-preoccupied, a physical nature wholly channelled into fanatical spiritual obsession, knowing that he will sacrifice his followers and himself, yet adamant in his determination to overthrow an unjust and cruel order. The events and circumstances of his life are made fascinating and revolting, strange and familiar, ridiculous, heroic and horrific all at once. Although we know the outcome from the start, violent culture shocks force us to abandon irony or superior hindsight and engage with what is being done and why. Like Süßkind’s Perfume, this masterly novel vividly recreates the fascinating contradictions of a distant and unfamiliar age.