A masterpiece by one of the most gifted and original of contemporary writers. It is a book that will repay study and rereading. Only a churlish, insular reader could fail to respond to its bold and exhilarating historical sweep, its poetic celebration of food and the arts of cooking
New Statesman
Grass spices his potent brew with a juicy concoction of tales and anecdotes, and a rich, Rabelaisian humour
Daily Telegraph
I know of no one else capable of writing anything like it
Sunday Times
Grass is one of the few great writers in Europe today
Sunday Telegraph