A vote for W G Sebald's Austerlitz, eager seconds of Mulisch (both Heaven and Assault) and Grass. Also, Robt Musil's The Man Without Qualities is gorgeously written (don't know who translated). And a wonderful book I thought was set in Germany until I checked just now--it's in Austria in 1938, is The Right Hand of Sleep by John Wray (an American)--but will leave it in anyway...

For Germany, did I miss Thomas Mann's <i>Magic Mountain?</i> in the listing above? It's widely considered to be one of the most influential works of 20th century German literature. It's long and not light and frothy, but scenes from it are indelibly etched in my memory.

One that somehow slipped my mind before but should have been obvious is &quot;Anne Frank Remembererd&quot; by Miep Gies, who was one of the helpers of the Frank family when they went into hiding. Her personal history gives an interesting sidelight (she was actually an Austrian sent as a refugee to the Netherlands at the end of WW1). I found it in Amsterdam, but Amazon have it.

This is a very inspiring and ambitious reading list. In the non-fiction category, I found John Bradshaw's &quot;On The Family&quot; incredibly insightful on the foundation and cultural values of the German family which led to the events of WWII.