The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum: Or, How Violence Develops and Where It Can Lead

Nobel Prize winner Heinrich Boell’s powerful novel about a woman terrorized by the media

In an era in which journalists will stop at nothing to break a story, Henrich Boell’s The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum has taken on heightened relevance. A young woman’s association with a hunted man makes her the target of a journalist determined to grab headlines by portraying her as an evil woman. As the attacks on her escalate and she becomes the victim of anonymous threats, Katharina sees only one way out of her nightmare. Turning the mystery genre on its head, the novel begins with the confession of a crime, drawing the reader into a web of sensationalism, character assassination, and the unavoidable eruption of violence.