Heinrich Böll

Acclaimed entertainer Hans Schnier collapses when his beloved Marie leaves him because he won’t marry her within the Catholic Church. The desertion triggers a searing re-examination of his life — the loss of his sister during the war, the demands of his millionaire father, and the hypocrisies of his mother, who first …

The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, or: how violence develops and where it can lead is a 1974 novel by Heinrich Böll. The story deals with the sensationalism of tabloid news and the political climate of panic over Red Army Faction terrorism in the 1970s Federal Republic of Germany. The main character, Katharina Blum, …

Billiards at Half-past Nine is a 1959 novel by the West German author Heinrich Böll. The entirety of the narrative takes place on the day of September 6, 1958 but the story stretches back through the use of flashbacks and the retelling of memories of the characters. It focuses on the Faehmel family's history starting …

Group Portrait with Lady is a novel by Nobel Prize winning author Heinrich Böll, published in 1971. The novel centers around a woman named Leni, and her friends, foes, lovers, employers and others and in the end tells the stories of all these people in a small city in western Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. As is …

In IRISH JOURNAL, Heinrich Boll the celebrated novelist becomes Heinrich Boll the relatively obscure traveler, touring Ireland in the mid-1950s with his wife and children. While time may stand still in Irish pubs, Boll does not, and his descriptions of his various travels throughout Ireland are as vivid and compelling …

And Never Said a Word is a novel by German author Heinrich Böll, published in 1953. The novel deals with the thoughts and actions of Fred and Käte Bogner, a married couple. Fred, feeling sick of the poverty of their house, has left her with their three children. They continue to meet on a casual basis every time Fred …

The Bread of Those Early Years is a 1955 novel by the West German writer Heinrich Böll. It was adapted into a 1962 film with the same title.