May, 1945. Carrying the coat of a comrade who died in his place, German soldier Hans Schnitzler wanders the bombed-out streets of Cologne.
In search of the dead man's widow, he meets a woman as lost and grief-stricken as himself. At first, the two strangers envy the dead and struggle to imagine a future in their shattered world. But slowly, they begin to find solace in each other - until they realise, together in a ruined apartment without food or family, that they have found a final, flickering ember of hope.
Unpublished during his lifetime and recovered decades after his death, Heinrich Böll's first novel is now hailed as one of the most important works of trümmerliteratur (literature of the ruins) as well as a testament to the German Nobel Prize-winner's extraordinary genius.
A W&N Essential with an Introduction by Claire-Louise Bennett