Cat And Mouse

Set in Danzig during the Second World War, this novella is told by a narrator looking back on his boyhood. He remembers a moment when a black cat pounced on the "mouse" of his friend Mahlke, which is his nickname for Mahlke's prominent Adam's apple. That incident sets off a wild chain of events that eventually turns Mahlke into a national hero.

The narrator is Heini Pilenz, and the story is about his relationship with Joachim Mahlke, an outsider among their schoolmates. It is the second book in Günter Grass's Danzig Trilogy, which also includes The Tin Drum and Dog Years. This English edition was translated by Ralph Manheim and is a Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.