--- product_id: 20364233 title: "The Call of the Toad" brand: "gunter grassralph manheim" price: "136 zł" currency: PLN in_stock: true reviews_count: 7 url: https://www.desertcart.pl/products/20364233-the-call-of-the-toad store_origin: PL region: Poland --- # The Call of the Toad **Brand:** gunter grassralph manheim **Price:** 136 zł **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Call of the Toad by gunter grassralph manheim - **How much does it cost?** 136 zł with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.pl](https://www.desertcart.pl/products/20364233-the-call-of-the-toad) ## Best For - gunter grassralph manheim enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted gunter grassralph manheim brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Full description not available ## Images ![The Call of the Toad - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41P93mY1OFL.jpg) ![The Call of the Toad - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Q8eE6hr1L.jpg) ![The Call of the Toad - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31zPGOQINOL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Another Great Book from Günter Grass *by R***H on Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2019* I have just about read everything by Günter Grass and enjoy his work. This one is no exception. A excellent insight into the lives and emotions of Germans, Poles and Immigrants in Gdansk, formerly German Danzig, during a time of German/Polish reconciliation, the reunification of East and West Germany and the fall of communism. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Five Stars *by C***R on Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2016* brilliant ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ An elaborate allegory concerning the new Germany and the new Europe *by R***N on Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2015* The novel begins with an encounter that can be encapsulated in a seemingly simple sentence: On All Souls' Day in 1989, an older German man, Alexander Reschke, who is visiting Gdańsk on business, meets a local Polish woman of similar age, Alexandra Piątkowska, as they both buy flowers at a stand in St. Dominic's Market.Actually, despite its simplicity, that is an historically dense sentence: Reschke had grown up in Gdańsk, when it was the Free City of Danzig. In 1944, as Danzig went up in flames, Reschke, then a seventeen-year-old member of the Hitler Youth, fled west. (But just how German was he, really? The family surname once was Reszkowski.) As for Piątkowska, she had been born in Vilnius, Lithuania, but her parents had fled from what once had been Polish territory to the "safer" Poland of Gdańsk. As for All Souls' Day 1989, that is a week before the symbolic fall of the Berlin Wall (the announcement by East Germany that all GDR citizens could visit West Berlin and West Germany) and the beginning of the "unification" of Europe.Alexander and Alexandra strike up a friendship and then jointly come up with the notion of a "reconciliation" cemetery in Gdańsk/Danzig in which displaced Germans who had fled the Free State could be buried back in their home soil. (Burial provides one significant tie to "All Souls' Day"; another is that Reschke, an art historian, had written his dissertation on "Memorial Slabs and Epitaphs in the Churches of Danzig".) Their vision of a reconciliation cemetery becomes the seed for the elaborate allegory that is the novel THE CALL OF THE TOAD: reconciliation and unification of Germans and Poles -- maybe, even, of all Europe.A lot of history must be overcome or finessed. And then, how to assimilate the swarms of "foreigners", who, in the novel, are personified by an enterprising Bengali named Chatterjee who starts up what becomes a booming rickshaw-bicycle business. Equally if not more problematical, how contain German entrepreneurialism and efficiency (the German-Polish Cemetery Association keeps expanding, turning into a new albeit peaceful German land grab, and the Deutsche Mark dominates at every turn).THE CALL OF THE TOAD is a deliciously clever allegory, and also a devilishly satiric and comedic one. The first two chapters are brilliant. The middle part lags somewhat, but over the last quarter of the novel the story accelerates and the complexity of the allegorical construction multiplies. The novel was published in 1992 and surely it is not as timely as it was then, although it is not wholly passé.As for "the toad", there are periodic references to the "call" or the "song" of the toad, a brief passage on "road-kill" toads, and stories about how the narrator used to swallow frogs and toads as a schoolboy trick. The narrator, by the way, was a boyhood chum of Reschke's in Danzig, and it is an easy and probably justified assumption that the narrator is none other than Günter Grass, who also grew up in Danzig and left in 1944. Each chapter begins with a striking line drawing of a toad -- the work of Grass. The translation by Ralph Mannheim is superb.Günter Grass died recently (April 13th). I am finding, as I myself am getting long in the tooth, an urge to read something by a noted author who has just died -- an eccentric sort of tribute, I suppose. The only other novel of Grass I ever read, over forty years ago, was "The Tin Drum", which I suspect constituted the primary ground for the award of the Nobel Prize to Grass in 1999. While THE CALL OF THE TOAD may not be of the same stature as "The Tin Drum", it is not unworthy of a Nobel laureate. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.pl/products/20364233-the-call-of-the-toad](https://www.desertcart.pl/products/20364233-the-call-of-the-toad) --- *Product available on Desertcart Poland* *Store origin: PL* *Last updated: 2026-04-27*