'If you're satisfied with yourself, beware of D blin.' It was with this temptation for brave souls that G nter Grass closed his tribute on the tenth anniversary of the great modernist's death. Alfred D blin is best known for his city masterpiece of 1929, Berlin Alexanderplatz. But the journey to the 'Alex' takes us along pathways both less familiar and every bit as intriguing. In the decades before his flight into exile in 1933, this medical doctor-cum-writer...