The Tin Drum

*The Tin Drum* is a 1959 novel by German author Günter Grass, following Oskar Matzerath, who decides at age three to stop growing and communicates his refusal of the adult world through his toy drum.

The book chronicles German history from the 1920s through World War II and its aftermath through Oskar's unreliable narration.

A landmark of postwar German literature, it helped establish magical realism in European fiction: Have you read The Tin Drum?

German literatureBooks from Deutschland
OskarGermanic masculine name
dwarfDiminutive folkloric being
drumsticksPercussion striking tools
glassTransparent solid from sand

shatter · scream · Nazi · World War II · Danzig · Germany · postwar · childhood · coming of age · grotesque · refuse · growth · noise · protest · magical realism · eel · grandmother · skirts

Opposites

literary style and narrative approach

The Tin DrumWar and Peace

Opposing states of nations

realist fiction · Victorian novel · naturalism · documentary fiction

protagonist archetype

The Tin Drumbildungsroman

Fiction of psychological maturation

David Copperfield · Great Expectations · Parsifal

Family

tin, tins, tinned, tinning, tinny, drum, drums, drummed, drumming

Familiarity: Top 1,000,000
Profile: Used worldwide · Timeless · Concrete · Rated PG-13