The Wandering Jew

If you think that Goethe's Faust makes fun reading, is simultaneously hillarious and moving, then I can recommend Ahasver by Stefan Heym. I reread it periodically, and always always find myself amused and bemused at human foibles and supernatural folly. This is one of my favorite books in German. glenn

there are only numerous books can be said that are as good as this one (one of them is also by stefan heym - king david report). layer upon layer of plots all conected and interconected. challanges the free mind as only a "prisoner" by choice in e. germany (Mr. Heym) can invent. walks on thin lines between christianity and judeism leaving no mythical stone unturned. if u were lucky enough to hear about this book, BUY IT, READ IT and tell your friends. p.s : for true lovers of literature

"The Wandering Jew" is based on an old legend which narrates the tragic life of Ahasverus, condemned to an ever-lasting life of misery, until the second coming of Christ, for having refused his master Reb Joshua (Jesus) a resting place when on his way to the Golgotha. It is a personification of exile and Christian condemnation of the Jewish people. Stefan Heym has elaborated on this legend giving it a broad philosophical dimension, with deep moral passion. Ahasverus is a moral character, standing between evil and good, with a revolutionary mind and wishing to understand and improve human condition. Thre are three parallel, interlock plots, the main one taking place in Luther's Germany where the Minister Paul von Eitzen strives holiness through his ministry (disguising his ambition, greed, and sexual impulses), and at the same time fascinated by the power of evil. Although the moral issues brought up are not a novelty, S. Hyem shows courage and passion in his convictions and invites the reader to thoughtfully participate in a dramatic show of human nature. A most wonderful book!

I came to this book after reading The King David Report, and found it stylistically similar but considerably more subtle in its subject matter. Through three interconnected narratives Heym poses a number of questions, chief among them being in what way and to what extent an individual is responsible for their own actions. The characterisation is beautifully observed; his Jesus is indecisive and pathetic, his Lucifer intelligent, sympathetic, generous and even moral. As with The King David Report, his ability to highlight human weaknesses is employed to great effect. Few writers place you so effectively inside the minds of their anti-heroes. It is a wonderful book, by virtue both of the story itself and of the ideas that underlie it.

This scholarly and highly original novel charts the progress of the Wandering Jew, Ahasverus, from his fall from heaven through to the apocalypse. Heym knew, to some extent, whereof he wrote, having fled Germany in the 1930s and subsequently been repatriated from the USA during the McCarthy era. Having refused Christ a moment's shelter at his house in the Via Dolorosa, Ahasverus was said to have been condemned by the Saviour (or Rabbi Joshua to the Jews) to "tarry till [He] return". The narrative is split into three strands: the world of spirits, a contemporary correspondence between an East German and an Israeli academic, and sixteenth century Germany. The protagonists in the the third setting are the ambitious Lutheran pastor, Paulus von Eitzen, his sinister companion, Hans Leuchtentrager and, intermittently, Ahasverus himself. A festering animosity between von Eitzen and Ahasverus develops as the decades pass, until they call down curses upon each other one black afternoon. No longer easy to find a copy, but well worth the search. Heym purported to write as "an atheist with profound respect for religion". This work is that rarest of achievements, an historical adventure with original theological content. A post-war masterpiece.