Which Günter Grass novel features a boy who refuses to grow up?

The Günter Grass novel featuring a boy who refuses to grow up is The Tin Drum.

Its central character, Oskar Matzerath, decides at age three that he will stop growing after hearing his father discuss plans for his future. Oskar remains physically child-sized while retaining an adult-like awareness, narrating his turbulent life from a mental hospital. His toy tin drum becomes his defining possession and a way to resist the adult world.

Set largely in and around Danzig before, during, and after World War II, the novel blends grotesque fantasy, satire, and historical reality. Oskar also possesses a piercing scream powerful enough to shatter glass, another uncanny feature that makes him both observer and participant in the upheavals around him.

A common mix-up is confusing the boy with the novel's title object: Oskar is the character who refuses to grow up, while The Tin Drum is the book. Published in German in 1959, the novel became Grass's best-known work and was adapted into an acclaimed 1979 film.