Beginning with the unforgettable words 'Granted: I'm an inmate in a mental institution', "The Tin Drum", the narrative of thirty-year-old Oskar Matzerath, is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. On his third birthday Oskar resolves to stunt his own growth at three feet, and on the same day he receives his first tin drum. Wielding his drum and piercing scream as anarchic weapons, he draws forth memories from the past as well as judgements about the horrors, injustices, and eccentricities he observes through the long nightmare of the Nazi era. Oskar participates in the German post-war economic miracle - working variously in the black market, as an artist's model, in a troupe of travelling musicians - yet he remains haunted by the deaths of his parents, afflicted by his responsibility for past sins. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of publication, Harvill Secker, along with Grass' publishers all over the world, is bringing out a new translation of this classic novel. The acclaimed translator and scholar, Breon Mitchell, has drawn from many sources: from a wealth of detailed scholarship; from a wide range of newly available reference works; and from discussion with the author himself. After fifty years, "The Tin Drum" has, if anything, gained in power and relevance.

君特·格拉斯（Günter Grass，1927～2015）德意誌聯邦共和國作傢。1927年齣生於但澤市。父親是德國商人，母親為波蘭人。1944年，尚未成年的格拉斯被徵入伍。1945年負傷住院。戰爭結束時落入美軍戰俘營。戰後曾從事過各種職業，先當農業工人，學習過石雕和造型藝術， 後成為職業作傢、雕刻傢和版畫傢。他是“四七”社成員，政治上支持社會民主黨，主張改良。在1970年社會民主黨上颱執政時，曾積極投入支持勃蘭特競選的活動。他的政治態度和作品中過多的色情內容曾在國內外引起過不少批評。

格拉斯的創作活動從詩歌開始，自1956年起發錶3部詩集《風信雞之優點》、《三角軌道》等，同時創作瞭荒誕劇《洪水》（1957）、《叔叔、叔叔》（1958）、《惡廚師》（1961）等。其中反響較大的是關於1953年柏林事件的《平民試驗起義》（1966）。他最主要的成就是小說。1959年問世的長篇小說《鐵皮鼓》使他獲得世界聲譽。此外還有《貓與鼠》（1961）、《非常歲月》（1963，亦譯《狗年月》），閤稱為《但澤三部麯》，成為一幅描繪德國社會生活的畫捲。長篇小說《鰈魚》（1977）和《母鼠》（1986）都繼續使用瞭怪誕諷刺的手法，將現實、幻想、童話、傳說融為一體。《蝸牛日記》（1972）則為一部紀實體的文學作品。格拉斯為當代聯邦德國重要作傢，語言之新穎，想象之豐富，手法之獨特使他在當代世界文學中占有一定地位，曾多次獲奬，幾次被提名為諾貝爾文學奬的候選人。1999年他成為成為20世紀最後一位諾貝爾文學奬獲得者。