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Jesus Christ Kinski

From the prize-winning author of THE GALLOWS POLE and CUDDY

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Jesus Christ Kinski

By: Benjamin Myers
Narrated by: Rory Kinnear
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Bloomsbury presents Jesus Christ Kinski by Benjamin Myers, read by Rory Kinnear.

A bold and brilliant short work by the author of the Goldsmiths Prize-winning Cuddy

November, 1971. Berlin, Germany. Opening night.

Klaus Kinski, Germany’s most controversial actor, steps into the spotlight to a crowd of thousands.

After years of making movies abroad, he has returned to the stage for a much-publicized one-man performance about Jesus Christ. As the crowd turn on him and violence is threatened, it is also very nearly his last. After this week, he will never perform on stage again.

Exactly fifty years later, a hypochondriac writer, housebound by winter snowstorms, becomes fixated with video footage of Kinski at his most manic.

In this forensic analysis, he strays into the darker corners of modern culture, and finally begins to understand the compulsive urge that drives artists to the edge of sanity in their pursuit of perfection.

Jesus Christ Kinski is a novel about a film about a performance about Jesus. It is a daring act of literary ventriloquism, a meditation on censorship, creativity, loneliness – and just how far our tolerance is tested by bad people who make great art.

Praise for Benjamin Myers
‘One of our finest, and most deftly imaginative, writers’ i news
‘Radical and gorgeous’ Max Porter
‘A writer of extraordinary and incandescent talent’ Alex Preston(P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Genre Fiction Literary Fiction World Literature
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Critic reviews

Jesus Christ Kinski is extraordinary. It is an assault. It is an affront to decency. It is Klaus Kinski, right there on the page. It is hateful. And I loved reading it. It takes real daring to take on such a subject and real skill to carry it off with so much humanity. The talent of Benjamin Myers is something to behold. (SAM JORDISON)
Spellbinding … the bold, inventive structure of Jesus Christ Kinski gives Myers the room to reflect on stagecraft, censorship, mental health, loneliness, cancel culture – and what we do with great art made by horrible people
Klaus Kinski was one of the world’s most controversial (and physically dangerous) actors. Myers’s novel, born of a real-life lockdown obsession, retells, via a demented monologue, the time Kinski decided to play Jesus Christ on stage in front of an audience of rebellious German youths
A tour de force of literary ventriloquism … His intense, double-edged fiction reminds us again of how exciting – in the right hands – the novel can be
The book’s achievement lies in the throbbing life force of Kinski himself. His is a dark star, close to collapse. It offers no guiding light but continues to burn five decades on
Disturbingly enjoyable
A daring experimentation ... The funniest comic novel I've read in ages (SAM LEITH)
A compelling autofictional account which exerts a strange charm … Plunges us into Kinski’s fevered mind … A riot of salty vituperation
Brilliant ... The bravura stylistic flourishes, the wild imagination, the conjuring of a damaged and maddening psyche – this book is strange and electrifying ... When Myers’s Kinski – vituperative, committed, possessed – grabs us by the neck and spits in our faces, deep down we know it’s what we deserve ... One of our brightest young novelists
A rollercoaster ride ... Strap in and jump on the mad actor’s back, but, for fuck’s sake, don’t let go
A molotov cocktail of a novel ... An experiment to find the line between art and madness, genius and monster; and a confession about authorial obsession ... It provided me with the most fun I’ve had as a literary critic in years.
A furious, erratic voice, speaking to itself in lonely lines ... The words of a genius, delivered by the mouth of a drunk. Sometimes they look like poetry, sometimes they verge on prose. Sometimes the letters go completely astray and come out like chunks of vomit on the page. Past and present collide, inner and outer monologue muddle, but no one escapes Kinski’s ire
An experimental and distinguished novel ... An idiosyncratic and destabilising performance that matches Kinski’s own
Highly original, bold, inventive … Myers captures the dark and forceful energy of Kinski and his startlingly aggressive and vicious mind … A stunning rendering
Exciting, shocking, funny and fascinating … Experimental in form but highly readable. Hugely entertaining … The only question is where Myers will take us next … His best book yet
All stars
Most relevant
Such a unique, painfully raw and interesting piece of art. And the audio performance raises this to another level again. Utterly masterful.

A phenomenal performance

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The structure yes is interesting but it’s always interesting when the fourth wall is broken. To me the intermission is the best part with the narrator also being great.

The vocal performance is the best bit

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