by Günter Grass (1962)
*Die Blechtrommel* ist ein Roman von Günter Grass. Er erschien 1959 als Auftakt der Danziger Trilogie und gehört zu den meistgelesenen Romanen der deutschen Nachkriegsliteratur. Der Roman lässt sich als historischer Roman, Zeitroman, Schelmenroman und Entwicklungsroman charakterisieren. Set against the backcloth of National Socialism, [this novel] is told in the first person by the central figure, Oskar Matzerath, tracing Oskar's history, beginning with his grandparents, and finishing at his thirtieth birthday (1954). Oskar is a dwarf, whose passion is his tin drum, which exercises some of the power of the Pied Piper's pipe, and he possesses a voice which is capable of breaking glass of all kinds at considerable range. The magic of Oskar's voice is matched by his ability to arrest his growth, but here, as elsewhere, the book moves on two planes, for the adult burgher world believes that his failure to develop is due to a fall. The grotesque figure of Oskar is accompanied by a grotesque series of happenings throughout his life, especially the eccentric deaths of those around him ... Oskar is finally condemned for a murder he has not committed and placed in a mental hospital. Oskar's detachment from the normal world enables him to comment upon it, and the book presents a dry and ironic review of the history of Oskar's times from the standpoint of Danzig, which was his home [as well as the author's].-The Oxford Companion to German Literature.
Gillian Bradshaw
Spring, 266 BC. When Isokrates, helmsman of the Rhodian warship Atalanta, encounters a pirate vessel off the Lycian coast, he finds himself caught up in affairs of state more deadly than the naval battles hes accustomed to. Among the pirates victims is a beautiful woman, the mistress of a king, who is fleeing to her lovers enemy with news that will start a war to engulf the whole of the east.
Pat McIntosh
How should the Devil enter a religious house and carry off one of its members? How indeed? But Arnold Fleming, the widely dislike pensioner, or corrodian, lodged in the Dominican's house in Perth, has vanished from a chamber, and a local knight and his mistress claim to have seen the Devil abroad that very same night.
Joan Hiatt Harlow
In Boston in 1775, orphaned fourteen-year-old Hannah is indentured to the family of a British general and begins attending secret meetings disguised as a boy, then passing messages and warnings to the revolutionaries using her beloved horse Promise. Includes historical notes.
Anita Heyman
A Jewish youth, training to become a rabbi in oppressive turn-of-the century Russia, becomes exposed to "worldly" ideas which change his attitude towards his religion and his country.