Show Your Tongue

First UK edition. Sm. 4to., [xiv], 224 pp., [7] pp. of double-spread plates, b/w illustrations by the author, postscript, contents. Quarter black cloth over black paper-covered boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Bound up from U.S. sheets.

Translated from the German by John E. Woods. Originally published in 1988 as Zunge zeigen. Ein Tagebuch in Zeichnungen., by Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Darmstadt.

A diary in words and drawings of Grass's six-month sojourn in Calcutta, from August 1987 to January 1988. Consisting of ink sketches, journal entries, fiction, and poetry, it details the misery and shame felt amidst the poverty of India. The book's title derives from Bengali culture: showing one's tongue is an expression of shame. By the winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature.