Heinrich Boll's many novels were translated into 45 languages, and he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972. Thereafter, in the 1970s his fame eclipsed that of any other cultural figure in Germany. His writing is generally perceived as remarkably unpretentious and unliterary. Professor Zachau's book analyzes the critical response to one of Germany's great writers in a thorough analysis which shows him to have been more literary and less popular than had been assumed.