The Call of the Toad

Description

'This book is a genuine tour de force' - New York Times Book Review 'Gdansk 1989. A polish woman, a guilding specialist, meets a German man, a professor in art history. A walk together in a graveyard gives rise to an ambition to establish a Cemetery of Reconciliation as a mark of the times and their spirit of unity... The satire is sharp, the analysis precise, and Grass is still expert in drawing out the painful comedy of human behaviour and the pitfalls that await good intentions' - The New Yorker From the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Tin Drum comes a satire of european politics and a love story.

Gunter Grass (1927-2015) was Germany's most celebrated post-war writer. He was a creative artist of remarkable versatility: novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, graphic artist. Grass's first novel, The Tin Drum, is widely regarded as one of the finest novels of the twentieth century, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999.

"At once a satire of post-1989 politics and a love story, it shows two sides of the author: firebrand and mellowed, humane observer... The Call of The Toad shows Grass as one of our greatest living storytellers" Financial Times "Mr Grass has a more lyrical, a more glorious sense of locality than any other novelist today" New York Times "With The Call of the Toad, Grass brings the fable landscape of the Europe of his lifetime up to date" Financial Times "A funny, wise, hugely enjoyable fantasy" Financial Times