A novel set in three parts, beginning in the 1920s and ending in the 1950s, that follows the lives of two friends from the prewar years in Germany through an apocalyptic period and its startling aftermath. Dog Years is the third and last volume of his Danzig Trilogy, the other two being The Tin Drum and Cat and Mouse. The trilogy isn't linked so you don't need to read the first two before you read this one.

Gunter Grass was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature.