Günter Grass takes up the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German ship carrying refugees and soldiers that was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in January 1945, killing roughly nine thousand people. The narrator, Paul Pokriefke, was born on the night of the disaster, and he tells about his mother Tulla and his son Konrad, who becomes involved in a neo-Nazi website.
It suits readers of German postwar literature. The novel asks how German suffering should be remembered, and why silence about it left room for the extreme right.
Thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Deep Diver. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2004
- Publisher
- dtv
- ISBN
- 9783423131766
- Language
- DE
