If Dutch literary prodigy Grunberg draws the occasional comparison to Philip Roth in his narrative style and predilection for exploding taboos, then this novel at times suggests a twisted farcical cousin of Roth’s celebrated The Plot against America (2004), which explored political power and anti-Semitism in Charles Lindbergh’s America. Grunberg narrates the life of Xavier Radek, a naive Swiss youth whose fascination with Judaism and desire to “comfort the Jews” leads him into a lifelong love affair with the son of a local rabbi, and precipitates a lifelong series of bloody cataclysms, including a botched circumcision, an assault by a gang of Kierkegaard acolytes, and several erotic interludes involving a bread knife. His megalomania stimulated by these horrifying events, Xavier pursues art and finds politics, eventually leading the planet to nuclear destruction. Like Roth, Grunberg is deeply interested in anti-Semitism and the emotional and rhetorical mechanisms of political power; like Salman Rushdie or William Burroughs, he deploys strategic blasphemy with brilliant comedic timing. At its core, however, Grunberg’s novel is about human suffering and the violence inflicted by leaders who see themselves as its cure.