D og Years, returned to the enormous length and complexity of The Tin Drum, but abandoned Grass's use of a deformed character as the protagonist.

Instead, there are three main characters: Amsel (artist, ballet master, scarecrow maker, and half-Jew), Matern (an actor, former storm trooper, anti-Fascist, and Amsel's blood brother), and Harry Liebenau. Instead of having one narrator, as in his earlier fiction, each of the three narrates one part of the book. Some have argued that Dog Years is thereby a more powerful work than the previous two works [Cat and Mouse (1961), and The Tin Drum (1959)], in what is called the "Danzig trilogy," especially in its dealing with the relationship between Amsel and Matern.

The latter journeys through West Germany taking revenge on all the exNazis he can find in an attempt to deal with the guilt for his role in the Nazi years and his betrayal...