By Germany's most eminent contemporary writer, a collection of the interlinked stories celebrating the century, to be published simultaneously around the world.Gunter Grass tells us a story for every year of our century. He writes of great events and seemingly trivial events, of technical developments and scientific discoveries, of achievements in culture and sports, of megalomania, of persecution and murder, of war and disasters, and of new beginnings. Although each story has a different narrator, collectively the stories form a complete and linear narrative in which the individual is the focus. As the sequence unfold, a lively and rich picture emerges, an historical portrait of the millennium in all its grandeur and in all its horror.One hundred stories coming full circle to create a novel of our century.