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I'm looking for the name of a book I read three years ago (although it was published in the early 2000s maybe) about a boy who leaves his village and goes to a large city. The cover art is a corner of Bruegel's Tower of Babel artwork where men are discussing things at the foot of the tower. The part I'm referring to is the banner of this webpage.

A corner of Bruegel's Tower of Babel artwork, showing a group of people clustered together, with the foot of the Tower in the background

Click to enlarge

Once the boy arrives at the city I believe he befriends some beggars who fake illnesses. He then eventually becomes a painter's apprentice, before being forced to leave the city, and returns to his village with (this is a very specific part I remember) a handful of nutmegs. This is nutmegs as in the spice, whole nutmegs.

I also remember the name of the book being the name of the boy who is the main character. The author was almost certainly male. I believe the story ends with the boy growing old and regretting returning to the village with only nutmegs. It is not Senlin Ascends.

I have been searching for a year now. Is there anyone who has ever heard of any book like this and could point me to the title?

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  • The first edition (1992) of George Steiner's After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation had the Tower of Babel on its front cover. amazon.com/George-Steiner-Aspects-Language-Translation/dp/…
    – DJohnson
    Commented Aug 24, 2021 at 19:21
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    In what time period is the book set? Also, is it meant as a book for children, for young adults, or for a general readership? These details will help narrow down the book. Thanks!
    – verbose
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 22:33

1 Answer 1

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Yoss by Odo Hirsch. Funnily enough, I ended up here because I was wondering the same thing. Your description helped to remind me of the name, so thanks!

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  • I hope the OP comes back to comment, this is tantalising; the story seems to match but I can't find any detail about Nutmegs when searching online, and the cover, although it certainly seems to come from the same paining, isn't the same portion that OP clearly recalled.
    – Spagirl
    Commented Jul 31 at 15:32
  • @Spagirl Yes, the nutmegs are definitely present. Yoss takes a bag of them home to his village, and gives them to a pair of beggars (and regrets it). The book is available from the Internet Archive: archive.org/details/yoss00hirs
    – Clara Díaz Sanchez
    Commented Jul 31 at 15:38
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    Please edit with specific details of how this matches the question. This will help others who come across it later. See our guidelines for story-ID answers
    – bobble
    Commented Jul 31 at 17:14
  • Cheers Clara, I did search on Internet Archive but somehow failed to find it b
    – Spagirl
    Commented Aug 1 at 22:51

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