Oskar Matzerath decides at age three to stop growing. Grass used this conceit and magical realism to write about the rise of Nazism from inside the German experience, with grotesque humor, savage irony, and deep moral seriousness. Published in 1959, it catalyzed the German literary reckoning with fascism. The Nobel committee took note.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.