Ferdinand, the Man With the Kind Heart, A Novel

The last novel from the acclaimed author of The Artificial Silk Girl, this 1950 classic paints a delightfully shrewd portrait of postwar German society. Upon his release from a prisoner-of-war camp, Ferdinand Timpe returns somewhat uneasily to civilian life in Cologne. Having survived against the odds, he is now faced with a very different sort of dilemma: How to get rid of his fiance? Although he certainly doesn't love the mild-mannered Luise, Ferdinand is too considerate to break off the engagement himself, so he sets about finding her a suitable replacement husbandno easy task given Luise's high standards and those of her father, formerly a proud middle-ranking Nazi official.Featuring a lively cast of charactersfrom Ferdinand's unscrupulous landlady with her black-market schemes to his beguiling cousin Johanna and the many loves of her lifeFerdinand captures a distinct moment in Germany's history, when its...