Joseph Hammer, later known as Baron Hammer-Purgstall, is a 15-year-old with an exceptional talent for languages. His gift leads him from the Styrian village of his birth to the royal court in Vienna, where he is in great demand with diplomats who require an interpreter. Joseph learns Turkish, Arabic, Persian and many other tongues; he is sent to the magnificent city of Constantinople, comes into the service of a British admiral campaigning against Napoleon in Egypt and witnesses things first-hand he only knew from books. He is a tireless negotiator between the Orient and the Occident, yet never feels quite at home anywhere. Joseph is pained by the inability of the world to recognise his talent. To ensure the envy of his rivals, the attentions of women and the recognition of the legendary poet Goethe he will have to produce something magnificent. Like finding and translating a complete edition of 1001 Nights containing every single story.
Unfolding in the era of the ancien régime and the revolution, Napoleon and Metternich, Joesph’s life moves between far-flung Oriental lands and the equally foreign Vienna. The strands of this rich tapestry are expertly woven together by Stermann to form a historical novel of high literary quality. His powerful narrative voice is imbued with a subtle irony and not needlessly overfreighted with gravitas. His abundant creativity fills this novel with whimsical, bizarre stories, facts and events. Its central, epoch-transforming theme is the yearning for distant places and for immortality.
