Suffused with melancholy, flashes of tenderness, and the author's inimitable sense of the grotesque and absurd, these essays provide a compelling look at the author's prodigious strength as a writer of nonfiction.

First published in Germany in 1993 and hailed as an instant classic, "I" is a black comedy about state power and the seductions of surveillance.

Each story presents a snapshot of a personal and historical turning point in the life of the narrator, beginning with childhood anti-Semitism and moving to a youthful embrace-and then an ultimate rejection-of Nazi ideology.