Another good one gone

The BBC has an obituary for Günter Grass, the famous German author:

Günter Grass, a Nobel prize winner for literature and author of The Tin Drum, has died at the age of 87. His publisher said he passed away at a clinic in Lübeck on Monday morning.
Born in what was then Danzig, now Gdańsk in Poland, Grass served in the German military in World War Two and published his breakthrough anti-Nazi novel, The Tin Drum, in 1959. Later in life he became a vocal opponent of German reunification in 1990, and argued afterwards that it had been carried out too hastily.
Grass' work was "a formidable reflection of our country and a permanent part of its literary and cultural heritage," German President Joachim Gauck said in a statement in German.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was "deeply dismayed" to hear of the author's death, the German foreign ministry tweeted.
Writer Salman Rushdie described Grass as "a true giant, inspiration, and friend".

Rico says he read The Tin Drum, in German, in German class in high school; it was hard to read, but the movie is easier, if still hard to watch; it is a surrealistic black comedy, directed and co-written by Volker Schlöndorff.