Leila Vennewitz

To learn the origin of this popular German sidewalk food, the narrator tracks down Lena Bruckner in a retirement home in Hamburg. And, yes, it was her invention, but it's a long story, one which he cajoles from her over teas. It all started in April 1945 when she met, seduced and held captive a young deserter. The war over, the lover escaped and Lena went into business. That's where the sausage comes in.

The accidental reunion of two men, former schoolmates, and their wives in a lakeside resort leads to a comparison of memories, an awkward intimacy, and a moment of terrible, yet exhilarating liberation.

Adam: Hitler's once great army is broken and demoralized, and the end of the war is imminent, yet Jews are still being "evacuated" and soldiers are still being rounded up like criminals and sent to the front. Böll paints war as acts of imbecility, senseless accidents, and bizarre coincidences related only through death. Train: Twenty-four-year-old Private Andreas boards a troop train to Germany to return to the front. He knows that Hitler has already...