The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart

Jesse Bullington

Orbit (2009)

Reviewers: Jeremy and Renate Kong

This book is about grave-robbing twins Hegel and Manfried Grossbart. It is set in 1364 in medieval Europe, a time of superstition and demons .The Grossbarts make their living by graverobbing the rich. They see nothing wrong with this, since Europe at the time is populated by a few rich people and a lot of downtrodden poor people. The story also has a fair helping of Demons, witches and other monsters. The Grossbart’s ultimate goal is to go to Egypt and dig up all the ancient pharaohs, as their grandfather once tried to do. Meanwhile they turn to more evil doings. They start their adventures by killing a man’s family in front of him. They believe he has slighted them in some way. They axe the wife, slit the son’s throat in front of his father and set fire to the house with the two daughters inside. Inadvertently they leave the father alive, a mistake as it turns out.

The story follows their adventures from there. They murder steal, fight demons, encounter witches (not the nice kind, but the ones that murder and eat their own kids) and start a crusade . All this is set against a background of the Black Plague. The Grossbarts are the worst kind of psychopaths - they have no remorse, no social conscience and a twisted view of the world and religion. They only survive by continued good luck and brutality and their stubborn refusal to give up. In this respect they are often tougher than the monsters they face.

Then we have the traditional forest witch who has children to her demon lover, fattens them and eats them. “Growing fast, growing strong” she winked at Hegel, making his knees soften. He leaned against the wall, his brother out of breath from his diatribe, She receives poetic justice when she is eaten by her own children. The witch before she dies curses the Grossbarts.. “Vengeance will be wrought, not with my hands but by what grows. You will lose everything, Grossbarts, and you will know I have played a hand in every misery that befalls you. Every dog that bites, every assassin that stalks, every man that turns against you ….I could have slaughtered you when you first came, and I’m glad that I did not, for your undoing will become legend.”.

She turns the father of the murdered family into a Demon. He follows the brothers around – if they can receive absolution from a priest they will go to heaven and it is his job to make sure this doesn’t happen. The brothers are absolute bastards and you really, badly want them to have a taste of their own medicine. Can they survive the forces building against them? “…the Brothers Grossbart are about to discover that all legends have their truths, and worse fates than death await those who would take the red road of villainy ...”

Jesse Bullington has constructed a terribly dark, evil view of the times and the people. The bibliography shows the extensive research that has gone into the book to make it as authentic as possible. His background in History and English Literature are put to good use. Even the humour is very dark. It’s not quite like any other book on these times. If you like your stories with a bit of bite and bile, this is one for you.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.2 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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