Gunter Grass's tribute to Uwe Johnson.

The friendship between Gunter Grass and Uwe Johnson was a significant factor in their lives and, in regard to Grass, in his work. The high reckon Grass accorded his fellow novelist and shut up friend has been aptly demonstrated by the agency of Grass's having listed in Too Far Afield (2000) the translation of his earlier novel Ein weites Feld (1995) the date of Johnson's death as a historic incident in the year 1984. It can readily be assumed that Grass prefaced this English version with a list of important political and literary happenings in Germany because he was certain that its readers would