The entertaining story of Konrad, the Babylonian god who has to learn to lead a mortal life because the people have had enough of him.
It really is divine how the Babylonian-Assyrian-Chaldean god by the name of Konrad, made up solely of a nose, stumbles through his exile on earth. Konrad once lived on the scent of sacrificial gifts, and now he has no sustenance, for the people have had enough of the old band of thieves. And so, accompanied by his vengeful servant Georg, he sets out on a journey of ‘atonement’ to the ruins of his former temples – to Babylon, which no longer exists, and then further West all the way to Paris.
Certainly the most humorous of Döblin’s novels, the book reflects the author’s own experiences of life in exile. It is one of the few novels that mirrors Döblin’s tragic experiences in burlesque form.
