An English translation of a post-war German classic. The events of the novel take place during the course of a single day in an unnamed city in occupied Germany where the endless drone of allied planes overhead increases the already heightened tension.

Grieving over the death of his wife and disillusioned by the political corruption that surrounds him, Keetenheuve, a minor German politician, confronts the political and social turmoil surrounding him in a ravaged, post-war nation.

In Rome, four members of a German family are reunited by chance. A young composer, Siegfried; his estranged father, Freidrich, who held office under the Nazis and is once more making his way in public life, this time as a democratically elected buromaster; Siegfried's uncle, Judejahn, a unrepentant former SS general; and Judejahn's renegade son, Adolf, who is preparing himself for a Catholic priesthood. The four men recount their separate experiences in music, bureaucracy, arms, and religion- taken together they personify the German soul. Death in Rome is a history book, a family book, a book about the battle over who gets to represent the authentic face of post-war Germany. It is a devastating and brilliantly powerful provocation of an entire nation.