Q

This is an extraordinary book. It has four authors, though the writing is seamless and I'd be hard-pressed to guess where one takes over from the other. Luther Blissett is a nom-de-plume (there's an ex-inter-Milan footballer of that name - and it's not the last of the jokes of nomenclature associated with this group). They are all Italians and all men. Their website is instructive, they are an expanding group, irreverent and diverse in aim and effect. Q is their first novel, but the members of the group have written more books and have an eclectic if incoherent web-presence. Q itself is a great novel with a long, rather rambling account of battles and insurrections across the body of Europe, as it gathers pace it becomes hugely exciting and informative about the history of Europe and its religious and cultural energies. It's a fantastic read: 635 pp and a section at the back of engravings and drawings from the time. It is both history book and novel, with all of the clashes that might thus be expected. Every word is true, whether in fact or intention. You may-well hate it initially, but as events in the novel gather pace, so do the events of history. You may think ecclesiastical debates, letters from a spy for a papal legate, accounts of battles within and outside cities and towns, the creation of witnesses and participants in some of the events, the sheer detail and depth of the writing - how can all of this make sense? Well, it does. The horrors of that time of near-schism, as Protestantism grew horns and a tail in the eyes of many, as our protagonist (the man with many names: Gert from the Well, Leinhard Jost, Lucas Niemanson, Gerrit Boekbinder (among many more)), meets a torrent of refugees, escapes by stealing a horse, doing work for a farmer, flees to Wittenberg. From there he travels on and each time he meets with a new challenge, and has to escape yet again or or risk being unmasked as a heretic. Protestantism has been causing ructions in Europe, ever since Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to a church door in a protest against the selling of indulgences, which supposedly guaranteed that a deceased would be accepted in heaven. In the eyes of the Anabaptists, the cult that grew up as a result of Luther's actions, it was foolish to baptise a child who could have no understanding of the grace and power of God, it should be as adults that baptism should take place. To massively simplify this era, it brought on the initiation of many forms of worship which were anathema to the Holy Roman Church. These included groups of free-thinkers, who took more than one wife, together with more morally upstanding people who nevertheless held goods and property in common. Once interpretation of the Bible became possible for ordinary people, through learning to read they began to feel capable of their own interpretation. The number of preachers increased as the 'common' folk sought assistance and a new direction in their thinking. The book's plot is a ramble of people, places, events and fighting and in-fighting, but towards the end it begins to focus more acutely and becomes a brilliantly exciting and terrifying read. The book's use of the vernacular may well put some people off, it is, in parts, scurrilous sexist and blaspheming, but how could it be otherwise? It is history from below, not an academic treatise. Do we ever find out who the spy Q is? I'll leave it to the more intrepid amongst you to find out. At this point the book is given over to pure adventure. This massively detailed and outrageously irreverent book, is one of the best I've ever read.