In an audacious literary experiment, Gunter Grass writes in the voices of his eight children as they record memories of their childhoods, of growing up, of their father, who was always at work on a new book, always at the margins of their lives. Memories contradictory, critical, loving, accusatory--they piece together an intimate picture of this most public of men. To say nothing of Marie, a photographer and family friend of many years, whose snapshots taken with an old-fashioned Agfa box camera provide the author with ideas for his work. Her images offer reveal a truth beyond the ordinary detail of life, depict the future, tell what might have been, grant the wishes of those photographed. An inspired and daring work of fiction from the always-provocative Grass.