Although he began writing before the Second World War, Böll's published work coincides almost exactly with the history of the Federal Republic, and there can be few more instructive documents on the extraordinary growth and success, doubts and strains, of this fledgling democracy. The sweep of Böll's narrative world—from the bleak anecdotes of the immediate post-war years, via the artistic turning-point of Billard um halb zehn to the controlled bitterness of Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum and the complex irony of Gruppenbild mit Dame—illuminates the social, economic and political development of West Germany….

When all allowances have been made for Böll's characteristic weaknesses—a certain stylistic banality and an occasional tendency towards sentimentality—the presentation of his complete narrative oeuvre underlines not only the astonishing consistency and inventiveness but also the humane warmth of a writer who has never wavered in his...