Set against the backcloth of National Socialism, [this novel] is told in the first person by the central figure, Oskar Matzerath, tracing Oskar's history, beginning with his grandparents, and finishing at his thirtieth birthday (1954). Oskar is a dwarf, whose passion is his tin drum, which exercises some of the power of the Pied Piper's pipe, and he possesses a voice which is capable of breaking glass of all kinds at considerable range. The magic...

A young german boy recounts the fate of his best friend, a Jew, during the Nazi regime.