After Pilgermann, a German Jew in the year 1096, ravishes the tax collector's wife, an angry Christian mob retaliates by brutally castrating him. Bleeding and left for dead, Pilgermann experiences a vision of Jesus Christ and resolves to set out on a journey to the Holy Land. Along the way, he will be joined by a motley group of companions: the headless corpse of the tax collector, a lascivious talking pig, a dead bear, and Death himself. In the story of Pilgermann's quest, by turns funny and nightmarish, Russell Hoban is at his most original and most imaginative.

'Superb ... Pilgermann is history, metaphysics, a tangle of mysteries, profound and simple.' - Guardian

'Not an easy read, only a fascinating and rewarding one.' - Time

'A Mad Max of a metaphysical story ... intriguing ... mysterious.' - Los Angeles Herald Examiner

'Pilgermann wants to jump off the page to lay hands on your shirtfront.' - Washington Post