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Alone in Berlin (Penguin Hardback Classics) [Hardcover]

Hans Fallada (Author), Michael Hofmann (Translator)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (320 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Release Date: 26 Feb 2009 | ISBN-10: 184614082X | ISBN-13: 978-1846140822 | Edition: First English Edition

Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: the nervous Frau Rosenthal, the bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and the unassuming working-class couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels receive the devastating news that their beloved son has been killed fighting in France.

Shocked out of his quiet existence, the usually taciturn factory foreman Otto is provoked into an action that will endanger both his and Anna's life. With her help, he begins to drop hundreds of anonymous postcards attacking Hitler in stairwells and offices all over the city. If they are caught, they will be executed for treason.

As their silent campaign escalates, the cards come to the attention of the ambitious Gestapo inspector Escherich, and a deadly game of cat and mouse develops between them. When petty criminals Kluge and Borkhausen also become involved, blackmail, deception, betrayal and murder ensue, gradually tightening the noose around the Quangels' necks ...

Product details

  • Hardcover: 576 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; First English Edition edition (26 Feb 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 184614082X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1846140822
  • Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.8 x 4.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (320 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 356,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

'An unrivalled and vivid portrait of life in wartime Berlin'. - Philip Kerr
-- Philip Kerr

A powerful portrayal of the corrosive paranoia engendered by such all-pervading tyranny...hammered out with such passion that it is painfully convincing.
-- Caroline Moore, Standpoint, March 2009

A signal literary event of 2009 has occurred...to read [Alone in Berlin], Fallada's testament to the darkest years of the 20th century, is to be accompanied by a wise, somber ghost who grips your shoulder and whispers into your ear: `This is how it was. This is what happened.'
-- Liesl Schillinger, New York Times Book Review, March 1, 2009

A terrific literary find....the first English translation of this fast-moving, important and astutely deadpan thriller not only fills in more of the story about ordinary life in wartime Germany, it will alert readers to yet another European classic now available to a wider readership. -- Eileen Battersby, Irish Times, February 21, 2009

An unrivalled and vivid portrait of life in wartime Berlin.
-- Philip Kerr

An utterly gripping thriller and subtle account of the moral status of Germans under the Nazis....A revelatory text. I urge you to read it.
-- Justin Cartwright, Sunday Telegraph, March 1, 2009

Fallada's prose...has a journalistic clarity and a thriller writer's pace. -- The Times review by Ian Brunskill, 6th Feb 2009

Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin is one of the most extraordinary and compelling novels ever written about World War II. Ever. Fallada lived through the Nazi hell, so every word rings true - this is who they really were: the Gestapo monsters, the petty informers, the few who dared to resist. Please, do not miss this.
-- Alan Furst

This is an extraordinary novel
-- Allan Massie, Scotsman, October 14, 2009

This novel is far more than a literary thriller. Fallada's vivid novel gives us the true, concentric circles of lives in a Berlin apartment block under totalitarianism. Michael Hofmann should be congratulated for bringing this work with all its immediate clarity to the English language.
-- Hugo Hamilton, Financial Times, March 23, 2009

Review

An unrivalled and vivid portrait of life in wartime Berlin.
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
The postwoman Eva Kluge slowly climbs the steps of 55 Jablonski Strasse. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
146 of 149 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Nazism in microcosm - Remarkable 24 April 2009
By D. P. Mankin TOP 1000 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
This book grew on me more and more as I read it. At first I had to adjust to some of the phraseology - whether this is because it was written by a German in the 1940s or is the result of the translation I don't know. But what was remarkable about it was the way in which the characters came alive. There is a satirical edge to a couple of the characters but this works incredibly well as a counterpoint to the incidents of violence which provide a sinister insight into the minds of the Gestapo. There is no gratuitous violence as such; rather the story focuses on psychological anguish. In the last part of the book the humanity and sense of paranoia felt by the central characters (and replicated by those who find the 'postcards' in the story) is juxtapositioned with the inhumanity of the Gestapo. By the time I had finished the novel I felt as if I had been on a remarkable journey into Nazi Germany told through the lives of a small group of characters. Do read this novel.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Chilling - terrifying 28 Sep 2010
By Self-help junkie TOP 1000 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm grateful for this book. For many years I've wondered: "How on earth did the Nazis get away with it - and why didn't ordinary Germans stand up against them?" This book helps me to understand how a regime such as the Third Reich effectively removes the possibility of resistance by creating an atmosphere of terror and mistrust at every level of society. The two main things which stand out from this book for me - which I have to warn you is a truly harrowing read - are how fear corrodes our ability to resist; and the absolute brutality which existed then and presumably still exists across the world. The scenes of abuse and torture are really awful - I found myself thinking "Can this really be true? Surely he's overexaggerating here!" - but instinctively knowing too that he was simpy telling the truth. I have to admit that my own courage and willingness to resist would vanish pretty quickly in the face of such depraved brutality. It is perhaps revealing that Death becomes the one bright point in the book: the ability to kill oneself, to remove oneself from such brutality becomes a freedom to cherish. That's how dark it all is/was.

A sobering read but one that I think is necessary to remind ourselves of just how awful conditions were in Germany during this regime. There was no glamour, no sense of superiority - at least not for the mass of people. Just grinding fear, mistrust, and despair.
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207 of 216 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant, page-turning moral thriller set in wartime Berlin 1 Mar 2009
By Gilgamesh
Format:Hardcover
This novel is nearly impossible to put down. It's an incredibly moving, gripping story based around an ordinary couple who, after the death of their only son at the front, decide to resist the Nazi regime - if only in a small, mainly symbolic way. For me its power comes from the rough, raw style - it was written in just a few short weeks shortly after the War - and the unfamiliar yet utterly believable events that eventually overtake each character. Subtly translated by the award-winning Michael Hofmann, it's a novel not to be missed if you've any interest at all in what it must have been like to live through the War in the heart of Germany.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellence in literacy
This is an absolutely brilliant book. Beautifully written with fascinating characters and a well woven story line that allows you to hope...
Published 4 days ago by Rose Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting account of political dissidence in wartime Berlin
Well written, moving and insightful book, hard to get into to begin with, but from a historical perspective, enlightening and well worth the read
Published 4 days ago by L Brown
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I came across by chance and took a punt on it. It was unexpectedly good.
Published 9 days ago by Mrs.M.P.Todd
4.0 out of 5 stars Alone in Berlin
Based on a true story Hans Fallada writes the story of Otto and Anna Quangel, a quiet and ordinary couple who are living in Germany during WWII. Read more
Published 22 days ago by Laura Besley
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating insight into Berlin under the Nazis
A chilling semi fictionalised account of life for ordinary Germans, attempting to resist Hitler. It is somewhat disturbing, but an utterly compulsive read.
Published 1 month ago by AYA
3.0 out of 5 stars Depressing read
Read for a book club. it started off quite harrowing then got a bit boring in the middle and is altogether a depressing read. Read more
Published 1 month ago by bayview
5.0 out of 5 stars Simply brilliant. Buy it and learn.
An incredible insight into 1940s Germany and the extraordinary courage it took for an ordinary elderly couple to fight the terror of Nazism in their own very quiet and non violent... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. V. E. Sutherland
5.0 out of 5 stars Really compelling and also informative about another side of life...
Book also gives interesting facts about the author and the real characters behind the book. Another author tipping between genious and madness (Hans Fallada not Geoff Wilkes)!
Published 1 month ago by Sally Jones
4.0 out of 5 stars Alone in Berlin
Very satisfied with the product and the prompt service also. Very good read of history and Quality . Many Thanks.
Published 1 month ago by dekazel
5.0 out of 5 stars Thrilling
I think this is one of the best books that I have read for a long time, characters very believable.
I could not put it down. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Zeta D
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