Siegfried Lenz

Die Kuchenschlacht für Fortgeschrittene. Eine meisterhafte Gratwanderung zwischen Lust und Katastrophe. Kredenzt wird die Kaffeetafel in Jütland zu vorgerückter Stunde - abends so gegen neun. Gebutterte Rundstücke, Kranzkuchen mit Rosinen, Sahnetorte mit Kirschen, Napoleonschnitten, gefüllt mit Vanillepudding; und nicht zu vergessen das Kleingebäck. Dazu literweise duftender schwarzer Kaffee. "Wir brauchen das Zeug, um gut zu schlafen", sagt der Tischnachbar zum leidgeprüften Gast und meint es bitterernst. Selten liegen herzhaftes Lachen und mitleidiges Grausen so nah beieinander wie in dieser grandios-köstlichen Geschichte.

A bestseller in Germany, Michael Wieck's account of his childhood in Konigsberg recalls a German city obliterated by fire-bombing during the Second World War. As the child of a Jewish mother and Gentile father, Wieck was percecuted first as a ""certified Jew"" by the Nazis, then as a German by the Russian occupiers, including horrifie internment in the Rothenstein concentration camp. In the midst of privation, savagery, and death, there were moments of absurdity, and Wieck powerfully depicts them in this unforgettable memoir.

While in an institution for delinquent boys, Siggi Jepsen writes about his life in wartime Germany and his relationship with a painter of international reputation who was betrayed by his father