Günther Grass is a man who, along with Sartre alone, managed to embody in his work the entire twentieth century - in all its painful unity and the nightmare of apocalyptic social upheaval. Grass's prose, nervous, uneven and, in Marquez's apt words, downright uncomfortable,” simultaneously attracts and repels the reader, or perhaps attracts him precisely because of its repulsiveness. This is a book that was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. This is our century through the eyes of Günter Grass. Age of wars. The Age of the Holocaust. Age of trouble. The time when every honest person, as they say, “takes the blame upon himself.” Guilt for complicity - or non-participation. Guilt for actions - or for silence. You were born in the twentieth century - that means you are to blame...