Günter Grass
Günter Wilhelm Grass (1927-2015) was a German Nobel Prize-winning author best known for The Tin Drum (1959), a pioneering work of magic realism he called "broadened reality." Born in Danzig to a Catholic Kashubian-Polish mother and Protestant German father, Grass served in the Waffen-SS during WWII's final months, a fact he concealed until 2006.
His "Danzig trilogy" includes Cat and Mouse and Dog Years.
Beyond novels, Grass worked as poet, playwright, sculptor, and graphic artist.
He lived primarily in West Germany, later Lübeck, while frequently returning to his Danzig childhood in fiction.
He died in 2015 from lung infection complications.
