Q - by Luther Blissett (Paperback)

About the Book

In this brilliantly conceived literary thriller set in the chaos of the Reformation--an age devastated by wars of religion--a young theology student adopts the cause of heretics and the disinherited and finds himself pursued by a relentless papal informer and heretic hunter.

Book Synopsis

In 1517, Martin Luther nails his ninety-five theses to the door of Wittenburg Cathedral, and a dance of death begins between a radical Anabaptist with many names and a loyal papal spy known mysteriously as "Q." In this brilliantly conceived literary thriller set in the chaos of the Reformation-an age devastated by wars of religion-a young theology student adopts the cause of heretics and the disinherited and finds himself pursued by a relentless papal informer and heretic hunter. What begins as a personal struggle to reveal each other's identity becomes a mission that can only end in death.

From the Back Cover

"[Q] is a historical novel of the grand and sweeping sort, one that aims to capture not a life or a moment, but an era of pivotal importance."--Washington Post Book World
"It is hard to do better than this vivid, terrifying portrait of a survivor of the Protestant Reformation . . . The characters in Q bleed real blood, blood that was still soaking Europe in the trenches of World War I, and the firestorms of World War II." -- The New Republic
While sixteenth-century Europe is devastated by the wars of religion following the Reformation, a young theology student adopts the cause of the heretics and the disinherited. Our hero, an Anabaptist who travels under many names, and his enemy, Q, a papal informer and heretic hunter, play a game in which no moves are forbidden. Across the chessboard of Europe, from the German plains to the flourishing Dutch cities and south to Venice, what begins as a struggle to reveal each other's identity eventually becomes part of a much greater mission: total annihilation of the enemy.
Part thriller, part novel of ideas, Q is as richly imagined as Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose or Iain Pears's An Instance of the Fingerpost and as subversively political as Michel Houellebecq's Atomised.
The four pseudonymous authors of Q live in Bologna, Italy. Their website is www.wumingfoundation.com.
Translated from the Italian by Shaun Whiteside
"Q . . . is as mysterious as a miracle and hot as a burning heretic." -- The Raleigh News and Observer
"This is a big book and a big canvas . . . The panorama is big and bloody and breathtaking: a crush of colour and crowds, exotic locations and war." -- The Times (London)

Review Quotes

PRAISE FOR Q
"Imagine Umberto Eco's knack for the swashbuckling thriller of ideas crossed with an artful touch of the Le Carrés, and you have a fair idea of the novel's mood. . . . As a historical blockbuster, it boasts pace, colour, excitement and suspense to spare. . . .Q works like a charm." --THE INDEPENDENT (LONDON)

"This is a big book and a big canvas. . . .The panorama is big and bloody and breathtaking: a crush of colour and crowds, exotic locations and war.The sheer weight of its authors' historical research provides a convincing backdrop for the fictional heroes."
--THE TIMES (LONDON)

"An extraordinary historical adventure of faith and rebellion, thirty years of fleeing, intrigues, and slaughters in the first half of the 16th century in the Saxony of the Iron Knights, and in the Rome of the Popes." --LA REPUBBLICA ( I TALY )
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