This was my first book by Oliver Pötzsch and I enjoyed this remarkable tale based on the Faustian lore. This is the first of a Faust series with the second being published this April. I could see a trilogy to capture all the certain plot aspects he left moving in this one. This was an excellent choice for my read this week as it left me desperate to know the ending! This was meticulously researched and set in medieval Germany. His characters and the plot were well established. I gave this an easy 4/5 and a recommended read from me.
**Alert Spoiler’s Below**
While in normal Faust tales, they are based on him selling his soul for knowledge but Pötzsch offers a slight rewrite of that portion. We begin in 1494 in Knittlingen where Johann and his childhood crush, Margarethe are caught together seeing Johann’s newest magic trick in the hayfields by Johann’s father. His father is furious and reminds them she is betrothed to another as the prefect’s daughter. A yelling match ensues and Johann is forced to return to their farmhouse as his mother has been sick and he normally cares for her. Assumed to have something like the white plague, she had declined in health, unable to walk and coughing up blood. Withered from the inside out, she passes away the same day and Johann’s world shatters.
The son of a farmer, he had been allowed to spend time on his studies and Latin school at his mother’s request. Once she passed, Jörg refused to pay for it any longer and informed Johann that his dream of becoming a monk was foolish and a waste of money. That if he wanted to remain in the farm he would be the new barn mucker. Then Johann stumbles into the great Tonio del Moravia in town for the fair in a few days time. Tonio saves him from a solid beating from Ludwig. Margarethe’s brother. Tonio asks Johann why he doesn’t fight back against them or want revenge. Then Ludwig mysteriously passes away the next morning.
Then finally, the Jude Fair arrives and everyone in town is there. Johann and his brother Martin find Margarethe along the outskirts enjoying the food. Her father has forbidden her from leaving town due to several missing children, but she invites them to explore the nearby river and return to the fair later. After a while they find a cave and Johann and Margarethe get cozy, leaving Martin in the clearing to play. When they surface, Martin has disappeared and Johann panics, running ahead of Margarethe and loses her, as well. After trying to chase noises, he ends up back in town without either of them. A later search party recovers Margarethe but she has been changed by her night, unwilling to speak or do more than lay in bed.
Jörg pulls Johann aside shortly after and informs him he can stay and live in hell or he can leave with clothes from and be banished from the house for his losing Martin and Margarethe. He also discovers that his father isn’t his real father and now his childhood makes more sense. When he tries to visit Margarethe her parting words are, Go Away, You are the Devil. He heads south out of town, determined to became someone famous so he can visit his father again and shame him for his treatment. Running low on funds, he tries to make money playing coin tricks in an inn but a wealthy merchant tries to swindle him out of money. Then they try to kill him for being a thief. Once again, Tonio saves him and kills the merchant. Claiming he owes him twice he declares Johann in his service.
They begin performing shows with Johann added in with his cards tricks and juggling routine. While they tour it becomes deep winter and they must find a place to winter for the year. While they travel he teaches Johann about his knowledge. They find winter at an Roman tower far off the road. Then Johann’ learning begins in earnest. Tonio teaches him about weather, astrology, palm reading, pyromancy, hydromancy, and aeromancy. Due to more missing children, hey are forced to evacuate the tower and Tonio tells Johann he wants to take him to the school in Poland but not what for exactly.
Before they make it out of Germany, Tonio claims they cant wait because the stars are right and Johann must perform his ordination tonight. When they reach the woods, Tonio gives him a black potion to drink and tells him he can give him all the knowledge he wants at any price. While Johann walks toward the center of the clearing, he finally understands what Tonio and his friends are certain will happen: a meeting with the devil, in the forest. He finally realizes Margarethe must have seen Tonio in the forest that day and cursed Tonio, not Johann. He tries to run away and vomits up the drink they’d given him. He passes out and when he comes to, he can see butchered children in the trees. He’s on his feet and runs away successfully this time,
He manages to make it to Augsburg, and become part of another traveling act They are bound for Venice to winter for the year. As he gets to know the troupe, their “alchemist”, Magister Archibaldus, discovers he knows Latin and offers to teach him since he was a student once. Before they arrive, the troop leader dies and Johann ends up taking over. During that winter in Venice, he befriends a Signore Barbarese with a sizable library. Though his books border on hearsay in those days as they spoke of men with free thought as opposed to the will of God. Eventually, however, Archibaldus judges Johann for his interest in such books and sets up a secret meeting with him, with the thought that he had dangerous information on Toni. Before he can impart it, he is murdered and forces Johann back to Heidelberg.
With help from Archibaldus, he gets into the university of Heidelberg on a scholarship. Though soon after he discovers his hometown love, Margarethe, is at a nunnery. He spends his free time trying to talk her into leaving the nunnery to begin the life they always wanted. After using an apparatus to show her what appeared to be Angel speak, she was ready to leave but they were caught by Johann’s school menace who had been following them, He manages to run but they arrest Margarethe and his school mate on heresy charges.
Fifteen years later, we re-meet Johann, who was now a traveling magician again. He saves a gay student set to be burned to death, Karl, and he joins his show. Eventually, Johann and Karl end up in Hamburg to visit the free library where they discover partial work of Aggripa, that may uncover the mystery of his birthdate, (Johann was born under Jupiter’s constellation.) though they must travel to Cologne to speak with him. Before he has time to really work through his birth with Aggripa, they are forced to abandon Cologne after Karl is caught with a man in bed. With Limited options for the winter, he takes Karl back to Tonio’s tower. He finally realizes that his birthdate concedes with the appearance of a comet.
They are summoned to Nuremburg after they have had numerous murders and may be able to help. They then discover Valentin, his school friend that he thought had died. They inform him that details related to Gilles de Rais, were happening again. Valentin begs him to help free a girl that was wrongly arrested that he took in, Greta. When they visit, Johann recognizes his daughter’s face. They infiltrate the prison to free her When they finally reach the inside, all the guards are gone and her cell is empty.
In the base of the prison, they come upon another Devil worship meeting in progress. Greta is captured and Johan trades places with her. None other than Tonio at the head, to begin where they had left off, all those years ago. He attempts tp sacrifice Johann to the altar again, to bring forward Hell’s beast and turn it loose upon humanity. When he drinks the potion this time, he manages to shove in ash from the floor over it to absorb it. Once again breaking Tonio’s hold, but not before he loses a finger and eye to the ritual. Karl comes back for him and opens us the apparatus in their midst to give them a moment of distraction. They escape back to the street and recover Greta from her second imprisonment within the town’s parade. Desperate for a way to escape the city, they take shelter with, who else, but a traveling group of acrobats and jugglers.
This book did a wonderful job of bringing this time period to life with all the tribulations of the people. I look forward to the next book of the series. I’m impatient to see Tonio’s and Johann’s next meeting.
