In these nineteen stories, many of them hitherto unpublished, there is one theme that constantly returns: ›Der Buckel‹ is about damaged people, the cast-outs and under-privileged, who furnish a telling example of Hugo Loetscher's narrative range and variety. The stories are told with unfailing artistry, precision and cryptic irony. Their playful lightness of touch and pleasure in yarn-spinning do not hide the fact that it is precisely man's vulnerability that can be translated into literature.