The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum »

Heinrich Böll (1917-1985) was one of Germany's most prolific and important postwar writers. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1972.

Leila Vennewitz has translated several books by Heinrich Böll, including The Clown and Group Portrait with Lady.

Kurt Andersen is the author of the award-winning, bestselling novels Heyday and Turn of the Century, as well as an essayist, cultural critic, and public radio host. He lives in New York City.

Nobel Prize winner Heinrich Böll's powerful novel about a woman terrorized by the media

In an era in which journalists will stop at nothing to break a story, Henrich Böll's The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum has taken on heightened relevance. A young woman's association with a hunted man makes her the target of a journalist determined to grab headlines by portraying her as an evil woman. As the attacks on her escalate and she becomes the victim of anonymous threats, Katharina sees only one way out of her nightmare. Turning the mystery genre on its head, the novel begins with the confession of a crime, drawing the reader into a web of sensationalism, character assassination, and the unavoidable eruption of violence.