[ book tip by Incentives ] The title of Heinrich Steinfest’s new novel could be translated as ‘The Everything Researcher.’ But what does that mean exactly - someone who researches everything that has ever existed, or someone who researches anything? Which is precisely what teenage Sixten Braun contemplates upon encountering his first Allesforscher, the aging scholar who occupies the loft above his parents’ apartment in Cologne. The old man helps Sixten see beyond his petit-bourgeois upbringing and exposes him to both the “visible garments of the normal” and the “invisible ones of the paranormal.” Later, after years of working as a manager in the “straits of normalcy,” a curious accident and a fateful encounter in Taiwan bring the study of everything - which blends dreams and reality, past and present - back into Sixten’s range of vision.

“Der Allesforscher” once again proves Heinrich Steinfest’s prowess at conjuring up surprising plot twists and character developments. The author develops Sixten into a well-proportioned lifeguard in Stuttgart, and bestows on him a young boy from Taiwan named Simon, alleged to be his biological child, whom he accepts despite his better judgment. Simon’s gravitational field is populated by a group of fascinating figures, summoned very artfully from the storyteller’s primordial stew. According to Steinfest’s epilogue, the book began with the single word “Allesforscher,” which had come into being for the prime purpose of naming a novel.

For us as readers, another idea asserts itself: that of the author as a researcher of everything. The archetype of the writer as a creator of fictional worlds, as a researcher of diverse characters’ psyches, has long been known. In “Der Allesforscher”, however, Steinfest’s act of literary creation takes on a marvelously universalist veneer; its focus almost places him in the German Romantic tradition.

Equally marvelous are Steinfest's insightful, entertaining comparisons and his amoebic drawings that float like scribbled plankton through the sea of text. As for the content, the author’s literary brainchild evokes a sense of humanity whose leanings seem not so much religious as pantheistic. Above all, the novel has a clear appreciation for the uniqueness of humankind and its multifarious attachments. Despite such ambition, “Der Allesforscher” is by no means esoteric, but remains nimble, elegant, and thoroughly amusing to read.

Abridged version of the review by Kristina Werndl, May 2014. English translation by Jake Schneider.
Full German text: http://www.literaturhaus.at/index.php?id=10356

[ book info ] Steinfest, Heinrich: Der Allesforscher. (original language: German) Piper Verlag, München, 2014 (2014). ISBN: 978-3-492-05408-9.
Translated from German