A review by dansumption
German Short Stories 1: Parallel Text Edition by Gerd Gaiser, Hans Bender, Heinrich Böll, Richard Newnham, Gertrud Fussenegger, Ilse Aichinger, Wolfgang Borchert, Wolfdietrich Schnurre, Reinhard Lettau

5.0

Some great short stories, and the dual-language format makes this a really useful way of improving one's German. I found the first story, Blass Anna, quite easy going despite not having great German skills. The language used in the stories gets more complex as the book progressed but, as I read it piecemeal over the course of about 18 months, I found that my German improved at a similar rate (although the final story, with its two lisping speakers and its frequent bursting into strings of made-up adjectives, defeated me in parts). Something unexpected which I got from this book was quite a clear sense of the German psyche of the 1950s and 60s - the misery of war survivors and returning prisoners-of-war who were merely existing and avoiding the past. Most of the stories have a gloomy cast, but there are plenty of moments of humour too.