The setting is Danzig during World War II. The narrator recalls a boyhood scene in which a black cat pounces on his friend Mahlke’s “mouse”-his prominent Adam’s apple. This incident sets off a wild series of events that ultimately leads to Mahlke’s becoming a national hero. Translated by Ralph Manheim. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

THE BOOK- To compensate for his unusually large Adam's apple- source of both comfort and distress- fourteen year old Mahlke turns himself into athlete and ace diver. Soon he is known to his peers and his nation as 'The Great Mahlke'. But to his enemies, he remains a target. He is different and doomed in a country scarred by Nazi volence and the war.

Cat and Mouse was the book Günter Grass wrote immediately after The Tin Drum, and it shares its setting with that earlier novel: Danzig during World War II. But while The Tin Drum achieves its extraordinary cumulative effect through the sprawling and picaresque, Cat and Mouse depends on brevity and compactness. The provcative story centers on the narrator's vivid recollection of a boyhood scene in which a black cat is provoked to pounce on his friend Mahlke's "mouse"--his prominent Adam's apple. This incident sets off a wild series of utterly Grassian events that ultimately leads to Mahlke's becoming a national hero. Because of Grass's singular storytelling virtuosity, Cat and Mouse is marvelously entertaining, powerful, and full of funny episodes--yet it also has a serious undercurrent "at the deepest level, [about] the survival of individual human qualities in this age of wars and state-directed politics."--

To compensate for his unusually large Adam's apple - source of both comfort and stress - 14-year-old Mahlke turns himself into an athlete and ace driver. Soon he is known to the nation as "The Great Mahlke" but remains a target to his enemies. He is different, and doomed.

To compensate for his unusually large Adam's apple - source of both discomfort and distress - fourteen year old Joachim Mahlke turns himself into athlete and ace diver. Soon he is known to his peers and his nation as 'The Great Mahlke'. But to his enemies, he remains a target. He is different and doomed in a country scarred by the war. Cat and Mouse was first published in 1961, two years after Gunter Grass' controversial and applauded masterpiece, The Tin Drum. Once again Grass turns his attention on Danzig. With a subtle blend of humour and power, Cat and Mouse ostensibly relates the rise of Mahlke from clown to hero. But Mahlke's outlandish antics hide the darkness at the heart of a nation torn by Nazi violence, the war and its aftermath.

The provocative story centers on the narrator's vivid recollection of a boyhood scene in which a black cat is provoked to pounce on his friend Mahlke's mouse--his prominent Adam's apple. This incident sets off a wild series of utterly Grassian events that ultimately leads to Mahlke's becoming a national hero. Because of Grass's singular storytelling virtuosity, Cat and Mouse is marvelously entertaining, powerful, and full of funny episodes.

Set in Danzig, Germany during World War II and centered on the narrator's vivid recollection of a boyhood scene, this marvelously entertaining, powerful and at times very funny narrative explores the serious undercurrent of what it means to be human in an age of wars and rebellions staged for the world's political theatre. As relevant today as it was when it was first written in 1961, Cat and Mouse was written directly after the publication of Grass's famous work The Tin Drum.

Die im 2. Weltkrieg spielende Geschichte eines Danziger Gymnasiasten, der einen körperlichen Makel durch absonderliche Heldentaten wettzumachen sucht.

En ung tyskers beretning om en skolekammerats skæbne, der blev præget af hans selvhævdelsestrang, opstået på grund af en fysisk deformitet.

Crónica apasionada de unas adolescencias quebradas por la guerra, que les hace salir de su mundo juvenil para enfrentarse con la catástrofe.

Durante la Segunda Guerra Mundia, en Danzig, unos adolescentes se encuentran frente al formidable aparato belico organizado por el nazismo. La tragedia ha estallado, pero los jovenes procuran rescatarse oponiendole el universo de sus suenos sin renunciar a su condicion de hombres. Gunter Grass describe la compleja trama de acontecimientos que llevaran a su personaje, Joaquin Mahlke, hasta una situacion limite. La penetracion psicologica del autor, la fuerza de su estilo, trascienden la simple condena de lo ocurrido en Alemania entre 1939 y 1945.

Katz und Maus by Gunter Grass (1971)