The call of the bell toad

Author: (German) Grass
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: This is an important work by Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass. Professor Alexander is a widower who returns to his hometown of Danzig for a visit. On a flower market, he meets Polish artist Alexandra and they strike up a conversation. Both having been widowed for many years, they fall in love and soon marry. After the wedding, they come up with the idea of founding a German-Polish cemetery company, allowing those who left home at a young age to return and be buried near their roots. As the number of reburials increases, not only do the elderly "Old Danzigers" travel great distances from Germany to return to Danzig and live out their remaining years in nearby nursing homes, but even the grandsons and great-grandsons of the "reburied" also flock to Germany in large numbers. They build extensively on the former German territory, and in no time, German villas and golf courses spring up like mushrooms after rain across the Polish land. At this time, some insightful members of the Polish Parliament raise concerns, saying, "Germans are occupying the land through colonial means," "Germans are making a comeback," and "Money can rule everything." To escape the pressure from all sides, Alexander and his wife drive to Naples for a trip. Along the way, they hear the call of the toadlet, which the locals believe is an inauspicious sign.