The Silent Angel - Heinrich Boll

May, 1945. Carrying the coat of a comrade who died in his place, German soldier Hans Schnitzler wanders the bombed-out streets of Cologne. In search of the dead man's widow, he meets a woman as lost and grief-stricken as himself. At first, the two strangers envy the dead and struggle to imagine a future in their shattered world. But slowly, they begin to find solace in each other - until they realise, together in a ruined apartment without food or family, that they have found a final, flickering ember of hope. Unpublished during his lifetime and recovered decades after his death, Heinrich B�ll's first novel is now hailed as one of the most important works of tr�mmerliteratur (literature of the ruins) as well as a testament to the German Nobel Prize-winner's extraordinary genius. A W&N Essential with an Introduction by Claire-Louise Bennett