Contains 63 stories and novellas by one of Germany's greatest writers.

The definitive short story collection by the Nobel Laureate and master of the form These diverse, psychologically rich, and morally profound stories explore the consequences of war on individuals and on an entire culture. The Collected Stories of Heinrich Böll provides readers with the only comprehensive collection by this master of the short-story form. Includes all the stories from Böll’s The Mad Dog, Eighteen Short Stories, The Casualty, and The Stories of Heinrich Böll. A Nobel Laureate, Böll was considered a master 20th century literature, and The Collected Stories of Heinrich Böll contains some of his finest work.

Robert Faehmel finds his structured life threatened by an old schoolmate and former Nazi

Cited by the Nobel Prize committee as the “crown” of Heinrich Böll’s work, the gripping story of Group Portrait With Lady unspools like a suspenseful documentary. Via a series of tense interviews, an unnamed narrator uncovers the story—past and present—of one of Böll’s most intriguing characters, the enigmatic Leni Pfeiffer, a struggling war widow. At the center of her struggle is her effort to prevent the demolition of her Cologne apartment building, a fight in which she is joined by a motley group of neighbors. Along with her illegitimate son, Lev, she becomes the nexus of a countercultural group rebelling against Germany’s dehumanizing past under the Nazis ... and what looks to be an equally dehumanizing future under capitalism.

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature In this collection of stories, written between 1938 and 1945, Heinrich Böll (1917-1985) recalls Erich Maria Remarque in his ability to depict war and its psychological aftermath. As in The Clown or Billiards at Half-Past Nine, the stories in The Mad Dog demonstrate Böll's early and continuing commitment to certain basic themes: the religious impulse toward meaning in the midst of human chaos, the hope love offers to those for whom all else seems lost, and the enduring possibility of an ethical core of action in a maelstrom of personal and political corruption.

"These twenty-six stories illustrate Heinrich Boll's finely nuanced storytelling at its best. In stunning portraits of ordinary people, Boll creates a rich tapestry of the dark years in postwar Germany. There are tales of soldiers on leave, listlessly visiting bars and brothels; stories of children rendered with a simplicity that belies their emotional impact; and stark vignettes of people struggling to re-make their lives against the ruined landscape of war-devastated towns and villages. Representing Boll's youthful beginnings, this collection introduces the themes that inform his life-long literary accomplishments and the wit, intelligence, and lyricism that made Boll one of contemporary Europe's most acclaimed writers."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

A "powerful image of innocence betrayed, of measureless evil oozing quietly from regulated, unimpeachable convention" - LJ.