The haunting portrayal of conflict and carnage in the final weeks of the
second world war makes this German novel a modern classic . . . The boys are
plunged from childhood into the abyss and this remarkable work charts a most
terrible coming of age . . . The central relationship is tenderly rendered,
and what the war does to it is devastating... In this, as in so much, the
novel holds its own against Grass and Remarque; it is an excellent work, and
one deserving of its wide readership. Rachel Seiffert Guardian
The haunting portrayal of conflict and carnage in the final weeks of the
second world war makes this German novel a modern classic . . . The boys are
plunged from childhood into the abyss and this remarkable work charts a most
terrible coming of age . . . The central relationship is tenderly rendered,
and what the war does to it is devastating... In this, as in so much, the
novel holds its own against Grass and Remarque; it is an excellent work, and
one deserving of its wide readership. Rachel Seiffert Guardian
