German literature

This German writer is one of the most important figures of post-war German literature; he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. Born in Danzig, he served in the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) during World War II and then studied at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art and at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts.

After a not very promising beginning as a playwright, he found fame through his novels; The Tin Drum (1959) his first novel, was a sales success that was taken to the movies by Volker Schlöndorff; later other novels followed such as Cat and Mouse (1961), The Flounder (1977), The Meeting at Telgte (1979), Head Births (1980), and Crabwalk(2002); political essays compiled in books such as Germany, a Foolish Unification (1989) or The Call of the Toad (1992); the collection of 100 short stories - one for each year - My Century (1999); and Five Decades (2003), a book containing reflections on the ties between literature and painting.

His style blends realism with a touch of fantasy, horror and symbolism, an unusual combination with a rare sense of balance, and which serves to analyze themes such as individuality, collective guilt and the rupture created among moral values weighed down by modern day life.