Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. Good, First UK Edition. A very good/good, clean and sound copy black boards with gilt title in dust jacket. 658 s. ; 24cm. . . .
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Gunter Grass, born in Danzig, Germany in 1927, is one of Germany's most celebrated writers. A man of remarkable versatility: novelist, poet, playwright, essayist and graphic artist, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. He died in 2015.
Recent German unification is neatly, if protractedly, likened to the inner development of one of its bureaucrats in this novel of Berlin after reunification. The book is a worthy follow-up to My Century, which taught 100 years of history in human, understandable terms. Theo Wuttke, known as "Fonty" because he's obsessed with famous German novelist Theodor Fontane, is a former war correspondent now on his uppers as an elderly file courier in a government agency of the former German Democratic Republic. Blessed with an encyclopedic memory, Fonty often recites poems from different languages, to his co-workers' secret derision. Weary of life at the agency, he tries to escapeDonce to Scotland, another time to Great BritainDbut a spy named Ludwig Hoftaller, himself an incarnation of a 19th-century figure and often called Fonty's "day-and-night-shadow," always finds him. Hoftaller's motivation is never made clear: perhaps fear that Fonty will leak German state secrets, perhaps loneliness, perhaps both. The past keeps impinging on the present; Hoftaller knows truths about marital infidelities in Fonty's past that keep Fonty from rebelling too forcefully. The two old men wander the streets of Berlin, each struggling with WWII guilt, as both of them had connections to Hitler's regime. Some overlong passages detailing German history will be lost on American readers, and Fonty's rambling monologues constantly threaten to bring the novel to a halt. However, the psychologically complex portrayal of a man's gradual relinquishing of his social position in order to keep his spirit intact is more than enough to maintain a reader's passion in the work. Fonty does manage to escape eventually, his victory that of a profoundly human figure who embodies both the bitterness and the sweetness of an era's passing. (Dec.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Hardback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR003663945
Quantity: 3 available
Seller: Better World Books Ltd, Dunfermline, United Kingdom
Condition: Good. Ships from the UK. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # GRP17244197
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Better World Books Ltd, Dunfermline, United Kingdom
Condition: Very Good. Ships from the UK. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects. Seller Inventory # 12099585-6
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: FIRENZELIBRI SRL, Reggello, FI, Italy
Hardcover., dustjacket. Condition: COME NUOVO. Translated from the German by Winston, Krishna Grass. cm.15,5x24, pp.XIII,658, Faber and Faber cm.15,5x24, pp.XIII,658, Hardcover., dustjacket. Seller Inventory # 263571
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: PsychoBabel & Skoob Books, Didcot, United Kingdom
hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. First Edition. Hardcover; first English edition, first printing. Jacket is slightly edgeworn; spine ends of jacket and hardcover are a little bumped. Boards are scored. Liquid staining on underside of jacket and on page block (effect on interior is negligible to non-existent). Small dent on page block, resulting in bumped lower leading corners of a handful of pages within. All text remains clear, and pages are sound throughout. TS. Used. Seller Inventory # 432348
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Parnassus Book Service, Inc, YarmouthPort, MA, U.S.A.
hard cover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition. (London): Faber and Faber. (2000). 658pp. Hard bound. With dust jacket. 1st. English language edition. Very light fraying of top edges of dust jacket. Otherwise a fine copy. S273. Seller Inventory # 20389
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: The Guru Bookshop, Hereford, United Kingdom
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. FIRST EDITION with dust jacket + owners name - Rare and Collectable - will send out 1st class post within 12 hours of receipt of order. Seller Inventory # mon0000112761
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Dial-A-Book, NARRABEEN, NSW, Australia
8vo hardcover 658pp. very good+ / very good+ d/w. Seller Inventory # 56251
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: GF Books, Inc., Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.
Condition: Very Good. Book is in Used-VeryGood condition. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Used items may not include supplementary materials such as CDs or access codes. May show signs of minor shelf wear and contain very limited notes and highlighting. 2.55. Seller Inventory # 0571190162-2-3
Quantity: 1 available