Though Günter Eich was primarily an author of radio plays and a lyric poet, he occasionally also wrote stories. In his final creative phase, prose became his medium of choice. From the time of the currency reform in 1948 through the 1960s, Eich was one of the best-known writers in Germany. At first the public detected in his poetry and radio plays an expression of their own concerns and experiences in the postwar era of chaos and deprivation. As the "economic miracle" unfolded, his writing tended to expose the hypocrisy and smugness which often accompanied this newfound prosperity while the horrors of the Nazi era were conveniently forgotten. Eich's reputation as an uncomfortable voice of the nation's conscience reached a climax in the last years of his life with the publication of some brief prose texts seen by many readers and critics as an endorsement of the...