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Acclaimed entertainer Hans Schneir collapses when his beloved Marie leaves him because he won�t marry her within the Catholic Church. The desertion triggers a searing re-examination of his life�the loss of his sister during the war, the demands of his millionaire father and the hypocrisies of his mother, who first fought to �save� Germany from the Jews, then worked for �reconciliation� afterwards. Heinrich B�ll�s gripping consideration of how to overcome guilt and live up to idealism�how to find something to believe in�gives stirring evidence of why he was such an unwelcome presence in post-War German consciousness . . . and why he was such a necessary one.