There are many ways to read the history of a country through fiction, but German Nobel Laureate Günter Grass probably invented the best way with The Tin Drum, his first novel. Oscar Matzerath is a dwarf, paralleling the stunted moral and human growth of Germany during and after World War II.

The novel traces the strange life of Oscar, who recounts it while confined in a lunatic asylum. His physical stature has not stopped Oscar from having an eventful and unpredictable life, with tumultuous love affairs, violent murders and constant involvement in the politics of the times.

The Tin Drum is the inspiration for many modern writers, including Salman Rushdie for Midnight’s Children. It shook Germany, attracting charges of both pornography and blasphemy. It is, arguably, Grass’s most important novel, made all the more poignant by his confession, late in life, to having worked for the Nazis in his youth.

Published in 1959 in German. Translated into English by Breon Mitchell for a new edition in 2009.