Of All That Ends: Gunter Grass - Tapa blanda

"As subtle and as delicate as the many feathers depicted through its pages, Of All That Ends is a glorious gift, a final salute true to the singular creativity of the most human, and humane, of artists." * Irish Times * "There is a lovely diversity to these pieces... His intelligence and intellectual engagement remain fiercely undimmed." -- Catherine Taylor * Financial Times * "This beautiful, ironic and often funny final collage of asides and meditations sums up the fabulist's genius." -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times, Book of the Year * "Autumnal, elegiac and tinged with a twilight charm " -- Boyd Tonkin * The Arts Desk * "Of All That Ends radiates a burst of his primitive energy and his subtle shrewdness, using words and pencil lines as a remedy, an antidote to the factual world that we objectify and iconise... Laced with black humour." -- Julian Evans * Daily Telegraph *

Suddenly, in spite of the trials of old age, and with the end in sight, everything seems possible again: love letters, soliloquies, scenes of jealousy, swan songs, social satire, and moments of happiness.

Only an ageing artist who had once more cheated death could get to work with such wisdom, defiance and wit. A wealth of touching stories is condensed into artful miniatures. In a striking interplay of poetry, lyric prose and drawings, Grass creates his final, major work of art.

A moving farewell gift, a sensual, melancholy summation of a life fully lived.