The first part of the Danzig Trilogy by Günter Grass, The Tin Drum (German: Die Blechtrommel) is a 1959 novel. Narrated by Oskar Matzerath, a dwarf of questionable sanity. Oskar was born in 1924, in the Free City of Danzig. On Oskar's third birthday, he refused to grow up and turn into a miserable adult. Because of this, he remains a boy throughout most of his life. Along his travels, he watches the rise and fall of Nazi Germany and discovers that eternal youth is not all that it's cracked up to be. He narrates his story from within a mental hospital. Where he is confined c. 1952-1954.