Given to me by a work colleague who was having a clear out before moving house.

The Tin Drum is a fictional autobiography. Oskar Matzerath is writing it from inside a mental institution, the reasons for his incarceration are unknown until the very end of the book. When Oskar was a three year-old, he received a toy tin drum from his mother and decided to stop growing. At the same time, he developed a high-pitched singing voice that he could use to break glass. He remains 3 foot tall most of his life at his father's funeral he suddenly decides to grow again and reaches the height of 4 foot 2.

Oskar's autobiography is also the biography of his family and its history, starting around the turn of the 20th century and extending until after World War II from his grandparents' generation to the present day. His family live in so-called free city of Danzig which gets captured by the Germans at the start of WWII.

Now I must say that this is probably one of the strangest books that I've read in a long time and large parts of it I found fairly repetitive and over-blown. This repetition made the plot plodding in nature rather than truly riveting IMHO but that said I was constantly intrigued to know what Oskar would get up to next. Overall an interesting read but not a great one for me but then maybe I just missed what was really going on.

Going out as part of a swap. Enjoy!

Thank you! This has been on my wishlist for a while so I'm looking forward to reading it.