From Germany to Germany

the long version

"In January 1990, just months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gunter Grass made two New Year's resolutions: the first was to travel extensively in the newly united country and the second was to keep a diary, to record his impressions of a historic time. Grass takes part in public debates, writes for newspapers, makes speeches, and meets emerging politicians. He talks to German citizens on both sides, listening to their bewilderment, their hopes for the future. Ideas for stories to be told take root--his novels The Call of the Toad and Too Far Afield. From Germany to Germany is also a personal record: Grass reflects on his family, remembers his boyhood, and comments on the books he is reading, the drawings he is making, and the sumptous meals he cooks for family and friends. The picture that emerges--not only of the two Germanys struggling for a single identity but of a changed world after the end of the Cold War--is engrossing, passionate and essential for anyone who wants to understand Europe's new leading nation. "--