This first novel by Heinrich Böll, who would later win the Nobel Prize, begins with a German soldier in World War II waiting for a train in Poland that will be taking him to the Russian front. You can guess from the title of the novel, that the punctuality of train is ominous. He begins with a clear premonition that he is going to die as a result of this trip, and that he is going to die very soon. There’s a gross scene early […]

A young woman’s reputation is destroyed by a journalist working for a tabloid newspaper after she is questioned by the police about her connection to a wanted criminal. Not only is she subsequently threatened through anonymous telephone calls and letters, but her family and acquaintances are also dragged into the affair by the newspaper. Böll wrote this book in the 70s because he was angry at a certain German tabloid that was and is notorious for its inaccurate and sensationalist reporting and that does not […]