The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, Or: How Violence Develops and Where It Can Lead was written by Heinrich Boll, one of Germany's most prolific postwar writers. Although Boll insisted that his characters were compositions and not psychological creations, they do have psychological reality. In this novel he tells the story of pretty, bright, young Katharina Blum, who becomes the center of intrigue with a big city newspaper when at a carnival party she falls in love with a young radical lawbreaker on the run from the police.

Translated by: Leila Vennewitz