Book Description
This gaudy, wild, and raw tale of a war-torn 17th Century Europe depicts Simplicissimus as the eternal innocent, the simple-minded survivor. We follow him from an orphaned childhood to the casual atrocities of occupying troops, through his own soldiering adventures, and up to his final vocation as a hermit alone on an island. Mike Mitchell's superb translation allows readers to enjoy more fully one of the great masterpieces of European literature and the first German bestseller.
About the author
Johann Grimmelshausen (1621-1676) had a very eventful and picaresque life. He spent fourteen years in the Thirty Years War, finally turning to fiction.
Mike Mitchell is one of the most gifted translators of his generation, winner and shortlisted twice for The Schlegel-Tieck German Translation Prize and shortlisted twice for The Weidenfeld Translation Prize.