Martin is eleven years old, “very tall and thin. He lives from what he earns. ”If he looks after the animals of the people in the village, he gets an onion as a reward. And “his eyes are very beautiful. Dark and patient. Everything about him seems calm and deliberate. And that makes him uncomfortable for the people in the village. They don't like it that someone is too lively or too calm. ”Especially not this strange child. When Martin was three years old, he survived a terrible slaughter, a bloodbath that his father carried out on his family: "It is not a child of love, it is made of hunger and cold," they think in the village. Martin seems miraculously spared from the massacre, as an innocent child. With him the black rooster escaped death, which has always been with Martin since then,sitting on his shoulder or in his lap; everyone in the village says "the cattle" are the devil.
Rose-Maria Gropp
Editor in the features section, responsible for the “art market”.
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“Boy with a Black Rooster” is a very strange novel, rather an astonishing tale full of cruelty, fantastic events and saving love.
Written in a style that seems out of date and at the same time excitingly unknown;
written in a language whose artistic simplicity captivates from the first sentence.
This is not the kind of simple language that it is purportedly intended to facilitate straightforward understanding.
Rather, it is such clear, often harsh sentences, it is the kind of speech and counter-speech, as they know the fairy tales and legends, in which the deepest secrets remain hidden, perhaps even safe.
And he can speak
There is of course a story that Martin is drawn into, along with the “painter”. He met the painter who came to the village to create an altarpiece at the very beginning. On his way into the unknown, Martin takes his special friend, the black rooster, in the role of not just a soul companion. The rooster leads him into the greatest danger and distress, in which all hesitation would lead to certain death. At the same time the rooster assists him in the hour of extreme danger. And he can speak, at least to Martin, who understands him. There are enough talking animals in fairy tales, in literature in general. The black rooster, which has no name, is taciturn, but absolutely definite: “The task came into the world with you, and now it fits you like a glove.“These cattle are not the devil's - perhaps rather the creature of his almighty adversary. It leads Martin to his destiny as a savior, admittedly driving him through the devil's kitchen beforehand.
Because there is war "in the area", wherever it is, in a bygone era that seems like the dark mirror of a violent present. Their route takes the painter, Martin and the black cock over some crazy stations to the castle of a terrible princess, whose madness is to blame for the robbery and murder of innocent children. To do this, she sends her so-called “riders” to the surrounding country, where even nature is enslaved. At one point, shortly before the three of them reached their destination, it was said: “You have traveled a long way and penetrated far inland. Martin feels that he is in the center of all suffering, in the center of those who are sick and in mourning. The corpses drip from the trees like fermented apples. They line the fields between poppies and yarrow. The fields lie fallow. The ground is cracked and arid.Ants carry their larvae away. ”The princess is the destroyer of all life; Martin and the black rooster will face her. Nothing more is said here, it would be a shame to read this book.