I have very mixed feelings about this book.
First off, I have never been a big fan of Reuter's style of writing. However, I found the story to be quite intriguing, this strange mix of historical realism, fantasy and magical realism.
I really did enjoy the cynical unlikeable main character and his odd stray bits of humanity (Piccolino) to his extravagant narcissism and mistreatment of others (Arturo).
The timeline is difficult and twisted all of course due to Pagamino's unreliability and his talent for lying his way out of situations - which I, surprisingly, found that I liked. I even, to some extent at least, liked the story about the captain's slow descent into sociopathy.
However, a number of things irritated and frustrated me about this book.
The magical realism aspect of the story - and in extension of that, the character Arturo - was never elaborated on. It was picked up enough times to create suspense but eventually it seemed to be just abandoned for the most part.
Especially, the backstory of Arturo and his master and the prophecy, I felt held great potential for the plot line, which could have gone in a number of directions.
The final chapter turned me off of the book completely. It felt like a cheap trick from Reuter's side and I did not at all find it clever or interesting. Rather, I was merely annoyed and disappointed.
So 3 stars to a book that I thought had great potential but never quite lived up to it.