Willi Heinrich is one of the most successful writers in postwar Germany; in 1985 sales of his novels exceeded fifteen million copies, and translations of his work have appeared in at least nineteen countries.

Heinrich was born on 9 August 1920 in Heidelberg to Wilhelm and Berta Koch Heinrich; he attended public school from 1926 to 1934 in Karlsruhe, then went to a business vocational school for three years. Drafted in 1939, he was stationed in Czechoslovakia for a year and fought on the eastern front from 1941 to 1945. After the war he returned to Karlsruhe, where he sold groceries and then lottery tickets. Following the success of his first novel, Das geduldige Fleisch (The Patient Flesh; translated as The Cross of Iron, 1956), in 1955, he returned to writing full-time. On 23 June 1955 he married Erika Stocker. In 1957 they moved to Baden-Baden, and since 1962 they have resided in Bühl-Neusatz.

The main character in Das geduldige...