The bread of those early years

the long version

This masterful early work of the Nobel laureate tells the story of one day in the life of Walter Fendrich, a 23-year-old washing machine repairman. Wry, ironic, yet intensely felt, the story is set in post-World War II Germany, amid the growing materialism and spirtual wreckage left behind by the tide of the war. Fendrich, a young man torn by insecurity and despair, obsessed with hunger, finds himself and his world transformed when he becomes involved with the daughter of a high school principal.