The Bread of Those Early Years

Heinrich Böll · 1917–1985 · Germany

Originally Das Brot der frühen Jahre (German)

Why it matters

A young repairman engaged to his boss's daughter is upended by the sudden return of a childhood friend from the hunger years, memory of postwar scarcity breaking his complacent present in two. A slim, early Böll parable of what prosperity makes people forget.

At a glance

A short, compressed novella with a simple, direct narrative line.