Cat and Mouse

Uncomfortable and constantly anxious about his prominent Adam's apple — a source of excessive mockery — fourteen-year-old Joachim Malke tries hard to gain new physical skills and agility to divert the attention of his peers. He becomes an athlete and a skilled diver and, within a short time, is known by his friends as Big Malke. Despite his dream of becoming a clown, he ends up becoming a hero, decorated by the Nazi army for distinguished merit in war. On the other hand, Malke's strange actions reveal the darkness that Nazi violence, war and its consequences have created in the hearts of a nation. With a delicate blend of humor and narrative power,

Cat and Mouse brings attention back to the city of Danzig once again. Cat and Mouse was first published in 1961, two years after the masterpiece The Tin Drum. These two works, together with the novel Dog Years, complete the Danzig Trilogy, Günter Grass's monumental work for which he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.