The German Lesson by Siegiried Lenz. [Photo/Agencies]

Title: The German Lesson

Author: Siegiried Lenz

Country: Germany

Published: 1968

Siggi Jepsen, the first-person narrator, an inmate at a juvenile detention center, is forced to write an essay with the theme "the joy of duty". In his writings, Siggi describes how his father, a policeman in Nazi Germany, carried out his duties without hesitation, sometimes hurting his own family and even to debar an old childhood friend, painter Max Nansen, from his profession. Siggi felt compelled by the confiscated painting, tries to hide it without his father knowing, and eventually gets caught and subsequently detained.

From the perspective of a son reflecting on his father's doings, the novel describes how the author and the Germans as a whole reflected on World War II. The work sold more than 1.4 million copies in Germany alone, and after entering the Chinese market, created a stir among Chinese readers. Renowned Chinese author Yu Hua, known for his work To Live, loved the book so much when he borrowed it from a school library that he was willing to pay three times the original price just so he wouldn't have to return the book.