This volume collects sixty-three stories and novellas written by Heinrich Böll between 1947 and 1985. It brings together selections from Böll's earlier collections Eighteen Stories (1966) and Children are Civilians Too (1970), stories published only in periodicals, four novellas from Absent without Leave (1965) and Adam and the Train (1970), the novella A Soldier's Legacy (1986) and some previously unpublished work. The chronological organization represents the entire span of Böll's career, from the stories of the early postwar period, which focus upon the experiences of the soldier and the returning veteran, to the masterfully satirical tales of later years, with their sharp criticism of the new sociopolitical order.

Contents:

• Breaking the News
• My Pal with the Long Hair
• The Man with the Knives
• Reunion on the Avenue
• Broommakers
• My Expensive Leg
• And Where Were You, Adam?
• Children Are Civilians Too
• At the Bridge
• In the Darkness
• The Train Was on Time
• Candles for the Madonna
• Across the Bridge
• That Time We Were in Odessa
• "Stranger, Bear Word to the Spartans We..."
• Drinking in Petöcki
• What a Racket
• Parting
• Between Trains in X
• Reunion with Drüng
• The Ration Runners
• Lohengrin's Death
• A Soldier's Legacy
• Business Is Business
• On the Hook
• My Sad Face
• Adventures of a Haversack
• Black Sheep
• My Uncle Fred
• Christmas Not Just Once a Year
• The Balek Scales
• The Postcard
• Recollections of a Young King
• The Death of Elsa Baskoleit
• A Peach Tree in His Garden Stands
• Pale Anna
• This Is Tibten!
• Daniel the Just
• In Search of the Reader
• The Tidings of Bethlehem
• And There Was the Evening and the Morning...
• The Taste of Bread
• Murke's Collected Silences
• Monologue of a Waiter
• Like a Bad Dream
• A Case for Kop
• Undine's Mighty Father
• In the Valley of the Thundering Hoofs
• When the War Broke Out
• When the War Was Over
• The Thrower-Away
• Unexpected Guests
• No Tears for Schmeck
• Anecdote Concerning the Lowering of Productivity
• He Came as a Beer-Truck Driver
• The Staech Affair
• Till Death Us Do Part
• On Being Courteous When Compelled to Break the Law
• Too Many Trips to Heidelberg
• My Father's Cough
• Rendezvous with Margret or: Happy Ending
• Nostalgia or: Grease Spots
• In Which Language Is One Called Schneckenröder?