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    Every Man Dies Alone
    Every Man Dies Alone
    Every Man Dies Alone
    Audiobook20 hours

    Every Man Dies Alone

    Written by Hans Fallada

    Narrated by George Guidall

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Hans Fallada wrote this stunning novel in only 24 days-just after being released from a Nazi insane asylum. Based on a true story, Every Man Dies Alone tells of a German couple who try to start an uprising by distributing anti-fascist postcards during WWII. But their dream ultimately proves perilous under the tyranny that dominates every corner of Hitler's Germany.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 16, 2010
    ISBN9781440790294
    Every Man Dies Alone
    Author

    Hans Fallada

    Hans Fallada, eigentlich Rudolf Wilhelm Friedrich Ditzen (* 21. Juli 1893 in Greifswald; † 5. Februar 1947 in Berlin) war ein deutscher Schriftsteller. Bereits mit dem ersten, 1920 veröffentlichten Roman Der junge Goedeschal verwendete Rudolf Ditzen das Pseudonym Hans Fallada. Es entstand in Anlehnung an zwei Märchen der Brüder Grimm. Der Vorname bezieht sich auf den Protagonisten von Hans im Glück und der Nachname auf das sprechende Pferd Falada aus Die Gänsemagd: Der abgeschlagene Kopf des Pferdes verkündet so lange die Wahrheit, bis die betrogene Prinzessin zu ihrem Recht kommt. Fallada wandte sich spätestens 1931 mit Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben gesellschaftskritischen Themen zu. Fortan prägten ein objektiv-nüchterner Stil, anschauliche Milieustudien und eine überzeugende Charakterzeichnung seine Werke. Der Welterfolg Kleiner Mann – was nun?, der vom sozialen Abstieg eines Angestellten am Ende der Weimarer Republik handelt, sowie die späteren Werke Wolf unter Wölfen, Jeder stirbt für sich allein und der postum erschienene Roman Der Trinker werden der sogenannten Neuen Sachlichkeit zugerechnet. (Wikipedia)

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    Reviews for Every Man Dies Alone

    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      This was a pretty amazing book. I don't usually get through books this lengthy in the time that I did, but it was so engaging, so compelling. The main characters in this aren't spectacular, they're not heroic and their actions don't particularly matter in the end, but despite fear they find courage which seems all the more extraordinairy because in Fallada's Berlin, everyone really is quite alone. Even those who think they've picked the winning side. It's an insightful look into the many faces of humankind under pressure. Frightening, but in some ways uplifting because sometimes it's not the impact of the small rebellion that matters, it's the fact that you know you tried and you know you stood up for something. Wonderful book.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      An utterly engrossing story, based on a true incident, which illustrates the courage which can be displayed by ordinary people in extreme circumstances. The book shows us the nightmare world of Germany under the Third Reich. Moving.
    • 4/5
      Written in 1947, this novel is based on the true story of a working class couple who left anonymous post cards in and around Berlin during the Nazi regime. The subversive cards encouraged people to sabotage the Nazi war effort by slowing down work in any way possible. The real-life couple, as well as the novel's main characters, Otto and Anna Krungl, were eventually captured and executed. There are also several subplots involving neighbors and relatives of the Krungls, including an elderly Jewish woman whose husband was taken away by the Nazis, an SS officer, a young thug making his way up the ranks of the Hitler youth, a female postal worker and her long-philandering husband, and others. Like most stories about Nazi Germany, this is the story of common people struggling just to survive and, sometimes, taking extraordinary risks along the way.I found [Every Man Dies Alone] difficult to read because of its relentless tension and the relentless cruelty and manipulations of the Nazis and their sympathizers. I'm sure that is exactly the effect that the author had hoped for, but: 1) I felt that I had suffered through similar books before, so there were few surprises; and 2) I just kept wishing that it would be over, since the unhappy ending was inevitable. These comments aren't meant to be disparaging; they just express the emotional impact that the book had on me personally. Would I recommend it? Yes, with the caution that it is far from a light summer read. If you appreciated (I can't say enjoyed) books like Night or Schindler's List, you might want to put Every Man Dies Alone on your wish list--but don't expect heroism, suffering, and endurance to be rewarded here, nor the evil to be punished.
    • 4/5
      A very moving fictionalisation of living under an evil regime and trying to maintain your decency. For anyone in any doubt about the evils of fascism, this book is a must.
    • 4/5
      We have all been aghast when we have read of the great tyrannical 'boot stamping on a human face' regimes of history. Or even in the present day- think North Korea, Burma. But as moving as historical accounts are, they nearly always look for the broad sweep . It is rare that they really capture the fear that individuals live in who are unfortunate to live in the wrong place and wrong time.Occasionally maudlin, sometimes rambling, Alone In Berlin does achieve this by focussing on a couple who carry on their own act of defiance against the Nazi regime by writing and placing in public places postcards which attack the Party. In pursuing this ultimately futile act of resistance they condemn themselves to eventual torture and death once they are inevitably caught. The reader experiences just how dangerous the smallest acts of defiance are and how overwhelming the State is. Also revealed is just how individuals can become brutal savages, uncaring of other people, in the name of the ruling Party.There is a Kafkaesque feel to the way Fallada ( or at least to the way Hoffmann translates in this excellent new edition) describes the interaction between some of his secondary players; low lifes, petty criminals and junior Party members, recently jumped-up on the back of the Party. This style adds to the feeling of uncaring brutalism that was Nazi Berlin.Some parts of this novel reads like a thriller, although the inevitability of the protaganists being caught soon leads to a feeling of desperation on the part of the reader ansd ultimately to question oneself as to whether one would oneself have the courage to maintain decency and even to act in a similar way to the Quangels for no obvious immediate gain.Perhaps the book is a little too long -the prison scenes maybe could have been shorter.A flawed classic then but one which, like much great literature, helps us to understand what it really could be like and also to examine ourselves
    • 5/5
      Very similar in feel to Suite Francaise, only instead of France we are the devil's lair: Berlin. Here are characters who suffered and profited from the Nazi regime. The book focuses on a few individuals, some complete losers, others who are working-class heroes, and are driven by events to opposing Hitler. One feels the couple's isolation, their courage, their commitment to seeing their rebellion through to its inevitable end. Memorable and extraordinarily rich in detail.
    • 5/5
      Otto and Anna Quangel, two mild-mannered Germans in Nazi Germany, decide to protest the Nazi's by surreptitiously placing postcards around Berlin. They hope to reach other people who disagree with the Nazi's and somehow lead to a general awakening of protest. The fear being sent to the concentration camps, or worse. Of course, the protest is completely ineffective.The book is moving and compelling. Its main strength is portrayal of the quiet desperation of people who have lost their country, and their sons. The characters are fully drawn and complete convincing. Even the Nazi party members and active supporters, who are portrayed as greedy and thuggish, are completely convincing as real people, not caricatures. The other highly compelling aspect of the book was that it made a realistic picture of what it is like to live in a totalitarian, police state, where even mild disagreement is viewed as dangerous or traitorous. Keep in mind, as you read the story, that it is based on a true case where a couple was sentenced and executed for the "crime" of distributing postcards critical of the government.In view of the historical treatment of Jews by the Nazi's with a virtual lack of protest from the German population, I was reading carefully to see if this would be addressed. For the most part, the Jews were not present in the book however, as they had already been sent to concentration camps. Rather, most characters in the book were in fear of being sent to concentration camps themselves. They was one scene I would view as being somewhat anti-Semitic: a Jewish woman, who is hounded to insanity and eventually to death, is portrayed as obsessing over her money and jewels at the end. (And, to be fair to the author, the protagonists are revealed to have quite a bit of money saved up at the end of the story, so perhaps the incident should not be interpreted as anti-semitism.) In any event, overall, the Jews are treated sympathetically by the book, and its protagonists.
    • 5/5
      I had a hard time picking up Fallada's novel of quiet resistance in Berlin during the Second World War. I've read several reviews that had me eager to read it, but it's not the most cheerful of topics, so I put off reading it. But I'm trying to tackle those kinds of books this year, the long, the challenging and the important. So I gathered my resolve and began.Every Man Dies Alone tells the story of Otto and Anna Quangel, a factory foreman and his wife, who decide that they have to resist the Nazi regime somehow. Spurred by the death of their only child, they come up with the idea of writing postcards denouncing the Reich and dropping them in busy places all over Berlin. They envision hundreds of people heartened and inspired to resist, but the reality is a bit different. Where they do not err, however, is in their expectation of eventually being caught. The book also features a petty malingerer and gambler whose attempts to get by doing very little go badly for him, his long suffering wife, who decides to renounce her membership in the Party (necessary for most jobs) and to move to the countryside. They, in turn, come into contact with other ordinary Berliners, some willing to collude with the state and others keeping their heads down. She drops her voice further: "But the main thing is that we remain different from them, that we never allow ourselves to be made into them, or start thinking as they do. Even if they conquer the whole world, we must refuse to become Nazis.""And what will that accomplish, Trudel?" asks Otto Quangel softly. "I don't see the point."The novel is filled with an overwhelming atmosphere of fear and suspicion. Otto reacts to this by cutting ties to everyone but his wife, which does not help his relatives in the slightest. Holding onto one's dignity becomes an enormous challenge. Despite the grim subject matter, Fallada allows the reader some moments of grace and choses to end his novel with a small moment of triumph.
    • 4/5
      This extraordinary novel was written in only 24 days by the author who survived Nazi Germany. It is loosely based on the story of Otto and Elise Kempel, a couple in Berlin who quietly dropped anti-Nazi postcards throughout the city at risk of their lives. In the novel, they become Otto and Anna Quangel. When their son is killed in the war, Otto and Anna realize they no longer believe in Hitler and feel they must act against him. Each postcard they drop could bring a death sentence. In my opinion, the book's strength lies not just in its portrayal of Otto and Anna, but in its ability to examine the psyche of many people, from the Jewish widow living upstairs to the SS officer investigating the postcards. As the novel progresses you are forced to see the many compromises and wrenching decisions people made during the dangerous times. The novel amazingly manages to combine a psychological examination with an action filled plot. I found the afterword about the author to be as interesting as the book itself; don't stop reading at the last page!
    • 5/5
      There are plenty of reviews that cover the plot and story fictionalized in Every Man Dies Alone so I'm going to comment on the writing/translation style. Fallada wrote the book at a feverish pace: it was written in twenty four days or so. He had completed a non-fiction piece on the case so he was familiar with the main characters and fairly unimpressed with their resistance efforts. I get the impression that the translator of the book into English from German, Michael Hofmann, was a deliberate, conscientious translator with a flair for capturing the mood of Fallada. The combination of frenzied writing and careful translation may have enhanced the original book.The two principal characters are doomed and powerless against the powerful Nazi machine. It could have been bleak as hell but somehow it is and isn't. At times it has a noirish feel. At times it has some wicked black humor. Then there are some tragicomic moments. From there, the inane bureaucracy of the times is explored. Inept secondary characters with weird sad stories of their own are beautifully drawn. There is introspection and musing on hopeless situations. All these styles mesh into a book that is a powerful example of what literature can be. Fallada stretches out several threads of plot and then condenses them with near brutal precision. The chapter, The Fateful Monday, is a good example of this. Some of the minor characters go from near success to great failure in quick time. Many do not see the doom approaching them including some of the Nazis. Fallada doesn't get polemical and keeps his writing voice on a even keel. Thus, he shows how life can be under a regime when one side has all the power and individuals try to survive a day at a time.
    • 5/5
      It’s 1940 and Otto Quangel’s life revolves around his job as foreman at a Berlin furniture factory and his wife, Anna, whom he loves unequivocally. He’s a quiet, undemonstrative man, preferring his private ruminations to mindless chatter with those around him. Yet when they receive word that their son has been killed at the front and Anna, in her initial stage of grief, refers to “you and your Fuhrer,” Otto knows he must do something to show her how wrong she is. He is not even a Party member, which she knows; what can he do to assure her and the world of his hate for the Nazi Party that is turning the lives of all Germans into a private hell? He devises a plan and Anna enthusiastically joins him in it, even after he warns her that if they are caught they will probably be charged with treason and executed. Based on the true story of Otto and Elise Hampel, the tale that Fallada tells is the compelling story of that plan: its inception, its execution and its final outcome. The book gets to the heart of the struggle that the average German faced every day, from food shortages and ration cards, to terror of suspicion by the mighty Gestapo, no one was safe. He paints a chilling portrait of wartime Berlin as the Quangels carry out their plan. That the book is a riveting page turner goes without saying. But this reader found herself admiring the quiet courage showed by those German people who attempted to save their fellow citizens and the country they loved from the crazed military that had taken over their lives. Can a single citizen bring about change even as all citizens are living in mortal fear?Fallada, who refused to leave Germany at this time, demonstrates a fluid storytelling ability with a bleak irony. Certainly as in other wartime situations, your situation is improved if you know the right people, have an in. Consider this as the author describes how“Baldur Persicke, the most successful scion of the Persicke clan, had pulled all the strings he could....and in the end he had succeeded in having the whole rotten business discreetly set aside....so the Persicke honor remained unstained. While the Hergesells were being threatened with violence and capital punishment for a crime they hadn’t committed, Party member Persicke was forgiven for one he had.”The way in which Fallada is able to demonstrate the horror and brutality of the time with vignette’s about the lives of stunningly vivid characters makes you think you are on the streets of Berlin with them. And yet, it’s the love of a man and woman for each other and their country that makes this story so memorable. This harrowing saga should be at the top of your list of WWII literary accounts of life in Nazi Germany. Very highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      What an astonishing book this was: a look at Nazi Germany written by someone who lived through it, bringing to life all the paranoia, the fear and mistrust in a way that really gets through to the reader. It showed very clearly how a regime can control its population by allowing fear to percolate through society. The fact that it is based on real events makes it more powerful. It makes the reader think how they themselves might position themselves in such a society: amongst those who seek to profit from it, those who take a passive role and try to stay out of trouble, or those who fight (however futilely) against it.I liked the author’s readable style, and the way characters were introduced in the early stages: the point of view would rest with one character who would then encounter another and the point of view would then move along with the second character in the manner of a relay race. Characters who only occupied a relatively small section of the plot were given shape and substance (thinking of Hettie in particular who was an excellent character). There was a lightness of touch about the whole thing and odd moments of humour. Around chapter 70, perhaps the most horrific phase in a book of many horrors, there were hints of Monty Python.I will go on to read many good books in the future but suspect I will never read another book quite like this one.
    • 5/5
      This is a brilliant thriller and a truly great work of literature.  The atmosphere of fear and the casual brutality between characters is brilliantly evoked by the simple, non-flowery language the author uses. It is rare for a novel set in the Second World War to be set in Berlin before the final fall and the sheer courage of opposing Nazism at its height in 1940 comes across clearly through the very ordinary Quangels' carrying out of the ostensibly small act of resistance of leaving postcards for people to find. This is based on a true if not very well known case (the Hampels), and also reminds one of the better known White Rose students, executed for handing out anti-Nazi leaflets. The Quangels fail but their failure comes across as an act of redemption - they succeed in a sense through maintaining their sense of dignity and self-respect in the face of tyranny and insanity. In doing do, they draw strength from small, occasional acts of kindness from individual guards, doctors or chaplains to draw some hope. Powerful stuff. This should be much better known.
    • 5/5
      This is an extraordinary book. I suppose you would classify it as historical fiction. The story is loosely based on a true occurrence in Nazi controlled Berlin during World War II. A middle aged couple, the Quangels, learn of the death of their only son in the war. The usually staid husband, Otto, is so full of grief and anger at the government for taking his son from him, that he hatches a plan, with the at first, reluctant help of his wife, Anna, to speak out against the Nazis. They decide to express their grievances on postcards and drop them in high traffic areas of the city so no one will be able to connect them with the subversive notes. This may sound like a very innocuous way to protest their feelings, but in Berlin at this time to partake in such seditious writing was punishable by death. The story flows nicely, being neither preachy nor pedantic. The lives of the Quangels hang for over a year on the words they laboriously print on their postcards. Each knows the other is in constant danger as long as a card is in their possession. Yet each is willing to give their life as the mere act of defiance has brought them a closeness and bond that has not been present before. Hans Fallada, the author, nicely balances the lives of this couple with many other elements of German society at the time. Petty crooks an criminals are contrasted with the Nazi faithful. Seemingly innocent people, who are just trying to live their lives in peace are contrasted with the vultures of society who prey on the weak and unprepared. A very moving story which can be enjoyed on many levels.
    • 5/5
      Great characters, excellent narration, a truly great book that reminds us of the horrors of war. Highly recommend.
    • 4/5
      Also known as "Every Man Dies Alone".

      This is a fictionalized account of the struggle of Elise and Otto Hampel (known in the novel as Anna and Otto Quangel), a poorly educated working-class couple living in Berlin with no history of political activity in their past against the Nazi regime. After Elise’s brother was killed early in the war, the couple commenced a nearly three-year propaganda campaign that baffled—and enraged—the Berlin police, who eventually handed the case over to the Gestapo. The Hampels’ campaign consisted of leaving hundreds of postcards calling for civil disobedience and workplace sabotage all over Berlin. They were particularly insistent in urging people not to give to the Winter Fund, which was essentially a false-front charity the Nazis pressured citizens to contribute to, but which was actually used to fund the war.

      There are a lot of exclamation marks used in the English translation which you would even find in a normal conversation. I assume that it is due to the intensity of the German language and the intensity of the times alike.
    • 5/5
      This has got to be the best book I've read in months, at least. Certainly the best novel. I had been waiting for it for months (the library had only one copy and others were ahead of me), and it was worth it. I sat down and read the whole book in a single day.The premise is excellent -- a perfectly ordinary, working-class German couple carries on their own private campaign of resistance by dropping postcards with anti-Nazi messages. I knew this was going to be a great story. But even more impressive was the author's characterization. He has the ability to make the most minor characters seem real, and altogether human -- there are no heroes in this book, not even among the resisters. And the book has many characters and many storylines all going on at once, but Fallada never once seems to lose track of anything and all the plot threads are woven seamlessly together.The afterword tells of Fallada's life (basically one disaster after another) and of the real-life couple who inspired the book. It was a useful addition, but the story can stand on its own.All I can say is: WOW. I will definitely recommend this book to all my friends.
    • 5/5
      Hannah Arendt coined the term "the banality of evil" in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem about the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the architect of Nazi Germany's final solution. Arendt found Eichmann a very small man, engaged in what was basically accounting. He did not have a grand vision for the world, he was just doing a job, an everyday civil servant engaged in carrying out his orders, unconcerned with how immoral those orders were. "The banality of evil." In Every Man Dies Alone, Hans Fallada tells the stories of Eichmann's counterparts, a group of ordinary, working class people with no power, no grand vision, just a desire to do what is right in the face of overwhelming odds. "The banality of good."Every Man Dies Alone features an ensemble cast, most of whom live in the same building in wartime Berlin. At the center of the ensemble are the Quangels, a quiet, unassuming couple who have lived an unremarkable life. Otto Quangel is a carpenter, foreman at the furniture factory where he works while Anna runs the household. Neither is political, neither has resisted the Nazi movement, until they receive a letter from the army informing them that their only child has been killed.Soon Otto comes up with a plan. Every Sunday, for the next two years, the Quangels write out one, sometimes two, postcards with messages against the Nazis. Each card carries only one or two lines of script, all printed capital letters to avoid leaving a handwriting sample. Otto takes the cards to buildings around Berlin and leaves them where someone will find them, hoping that the messages on the cards will spread and more people will begin to resist the Nazis."The banality of good."Writing a postcard against the Nazis is an offense punishable by death. The local police and the Gestapo are immediately on the case, right from the very first postcard. Two things struck me about Hans Fallada's portrayal of wartime Berlin. The first was how petty it all was. The pro-Nazi family living below the Quangels is obsessed with the Jewish woman who lives on the top floor. They are determined to drive her from their building, not because they believe in anti-Semitism, though they certainly do, but because they are convinced she has quality bed linens and a radio, which they can steal from her apartment as soon as she is gone. The Nazis are little more than petty thugs, obsessed with their own position and their own personal wealth. They assign one police detective to do nothing but find out who is writing the postcards, as though they have the power to destroy everything.The second thing that struck me was how omnipresent the Nazis were; everyone was spying on everyone. Anyone you met could be the person who would turn you in for making a stray anti-government remark or for not being enthusiastic enough in your praise of the war effort or your donations to the Winter Relief Fund. As a result, the longer the Quangels get away with writing their postcards, the more isolated from the neighbors, friends and family they become. Everyone in the novel, everyone in Germany, lives in fear that someone will report them to the Gestapo. An act as simple, and as harmless as writing a postcard becomes a dangerous risk, punishable by death. That it makes for such suspenseful reading is a testament to its author.The history of Every Man Dies Alone is as interesting as the story it tells. Already a successful novelist, Hans Fallada did not flee Germany when the Nazis came to power. Believing his work was not political, and would not attract attention from the Nazis, he stayed in Germany. But his novel The World Outside was attacked for its sympathetic portrayal of convicts. Fallada spent the war supporting himself with light contemporary novels, short stories, children's stories, fictionalized autobiographies, anything he could find that avoided politics altogether. When forced to, he added a pro-Nazi ending to a film script he was commissioned to write for actor Emil Jennings. He ended the war in an asylum, a result of too much drink. After the war, Fallada was encouraged to write a novel about Otto and Elise Hampel by German author Johannes R. Becher who gave Fallada the Hempel's Gestapo file. Fallada based Every Man Dies Alone on the Hampel's story, and wrote the entire novel in two months time. He died before before it could be published.
    • 4/5
      An elderly couple, whose son has died fighting, dares to compose anti-Hitler postcards and place them throughout Berlin. The times of distrust and everyone-out-for-themsleves is very obvious. Tension with neighbors and the struggle to survive in a world turned upside down is well played. Sometimes the writing is too dogmatic to be effective.
    • 5/5
      This is an extraordinary book.I won't go into the plot here (you can read in reviews below)- let me just say that this is one of the best books I've ever read, and I am a harsh critic.
    • 4/5
      Every Man Dies Alone is disturbing, engrossing, and powerful. Based on the real experiences of a married couple's resistance to the Nazis, it is an insightful story of love, standing up for one's beliefs, and the atrocities committed by power that is fed by fear.Enno and Anna Quangel are middle-aged, working-class Berliners whose son is killed in France. Together they launch a private war against the Führer, dropping anonymous postcards around Berlin in an attempt to expose the Nazis as insane bullies and destructive liars. As their campaign advances, their lives entwine with dozens of other Berliners' in unimaginable ways, some compassionate, some desperate, some despicable. Their commitment to resistance is tested again and again, but Anna and Otto demonstrate how vital to human being are integrity, honour, kindness, and courage.The novel evokes consistent tension in the reader; it also speaks with immediacy and an almost ultra-real level of detail. The action is relentless, unflinching. Readers may find the novel reminiscent of Marge Piercy's Gone to Soldiers (1987) in its entwining of various plots and of Ursula Hegi's Stones from the River (1994) in its look at the daily lives of Germans under Nazism, but it is stylistically distinct. The author uses some interesting technique in tense shifting to bring the reader into the moment of the action, and the diction is exquisitely managed to enrich character, setting, and situation (kudos to the translator!). This is a long novel — some 500 pages — but it moves extremely quickly and kept me consistently wanting to know what would happen next. The footnotes and afterword are nice touches. I was not familiar with some of the more obscure elements of Germany society under the Nazis, and greatly appreciated learning more about the author, Hans Fallada, whose work is new to me. This is a masterful novel, and learning that Fallada wrote it a matter of weeks makes it even more impressive.Anyone interested in the Second World War, social justice, or the psychology of fear should enjoy this novel, as should anyone who simply wants a compelling read. It is extremely well written and will leave a reader with much on which to reflect.
    • 4/5
      I have read a lot about the Holocaust and about how it might have felt to be a Jew in Germany, Poland, France during that time. I've read some books about the experiences of people who were gay, and people who were disabled - much narrative of the victims of the Nazi party and the German people. I didn't think that I could get anything out of reading another book about the era. I was very wrong.Every Man Dies Alone is the first book I have read that tells the tale not from the victim's point of view, nor from the bystander's - nor even from the perpetrators (I am sure books like that exist). It is a novel about the lives of Germans who have some knowledge of what the party does to Jews and others, but whose knowledge is limited - much the way many people don't know a lot about the details of their government. They are uncomfortable with Nazism, to varying degrees, and do the minimum in order to live their lives - pay minimal dues, sign up for the party at work but don't attend meetings. Some of them experience an event - a death, or hearing that a loved one committed atrocities in Hitler's name - that pushes them over the edge into small rebellion. None of these Germans are heroes; most of them simply wish to live their lives in peace. None of them takes so bald a risk as to stand up and publicly declaim the Nazis. But they each find their own way to resist against the Nazi morale, and the beauty of this book is that, although this resistance accomplishes nothing against the massive Nazi machine, it helps the characters learn more about how they can survive in such a place with dignity.The argument about ordinary Germans is that they all should have risen up against the party and against Hitler, that no amount of protest could be enough until the killings stopped. This novel really brought home how dangerous even the smallest of rebellions could be; how lives could be risked by even going along with the motions, how no one is safe. It conveyed the feeling better than any other of what it was like to be under constant surveillance and at the mercy of those who could lie about you to better themselves, in a time when the lies needed nothing to back them up, to be a risk to you. I was most impressed by the book on all counts. I couldn't believe when I read in the postscript that it had been written contemporaneously - I wouldn't have thought it possible to write such a book in 1947. Perhaps that is part of why it felt so real, and gripping.
    • 4/5
      Hans Fallada, the alias for Rudolf Ditzen, wrote his last novel, Every Man Dies Alone, in 24 days and died of a morphine overdose before it could be published. A man tortured by substance abuse and his ambivalent relationship with the Nazis, Fallada wrote prolifically but with few successes. After stints in hospitals and even an insane asylum, Fallada was shown a Gestapo file by a friend and told it would make a good story. The file was on a German couple who resisted the Reich by dispersing hand-written postcards denouncing Hitler and the war throughout Berlin. Fallada uses the basic plot suggested by the file to create the novel.The story of the ficticious Otto and Anna Quangel is one of an average, working-class couple who live placidly under the Fuhrer until the death of their only son in the war. The senseless death of their son spurs them to defiance, and they begin their postcard campaign. Woven within and around their story are the stories of dozens of other people, resisters, snitchers, and Nazis, who together create a picture of life under Hitler. The richness of the character depictions are the highlights of the book. Even minor characters take on life and draw one in.Unfortunately, the characters are almost entirely single-faceted. One is either good or evil, and only one character, the Inspector Escherich, seems to have any moral development as the story progresses. Despite this, I was interested in the fate of the characters and found the book a quick and absorbing read. Fallada creates an image of German life during the war as being as morally compromising as life under Stalin, a comparison that came quickly to mind having just finished reading The Whisperers. I was left wondering once again what I would be capable of if I were in such a situation. Would I be capable of resistance or would I collude in silence letting fear prevent action?
    • 5/5
      [Every Man Dies Alone] is a dark and suspenseful novel - based on a true story - about one couple’s (ultimately futile) acts of resistance during WWII aimed at attempting to turn public opinion against the Nazi regime. A richly detailed saga with a large cast of characters, numerous plot twists and turns that weave in and out, makes this a page turner that keeps you reading on despite its 500+ pages. It offers a chilling portrait of the distrust that permeated everyday German life during the war. A deeply moving story of a couple’s intent on standing up for what's right and each other.
    • 5/5
      The novel is complemented by an afterword by Geoff Wilkes--a specialist on Fallada from the University of Queensland--and the reproduction of several documents that were part of the Gestapo folder on which Fallada based this novel. This, along with the inclusion in both endsheets of a map of Berlin where the fictional action takes place, helps the reader have a more informative and suggestive context. Michael Hofmann (misspelled as 'Hoffman' in the jacket) is the translator. Though I don't know German, I find Michael Hofmann's translation particularly engaging--it maintains, I sense, an artistic balance of exoticism and crude directness that in many ways match and underscore the brutally cold events and language that the characters suffer and inflict on others. His notes are few, succinct and very informative for the general public. The novel vividly brings to life the degradation of German society in the 30's and 40's. The totalitarian State has created such a reality of fear and distrust, that willing collaboration with the regime at worst, or indifference to its abjection at best, fuel the devastation it imposes on the lives of individuals. In the midst of this bleak existence, closer at times to a dystopian, Kafkian world than to a realist chronicle, Otto and Anna Quangel initiate a personal vendetta by dropping off handwritten cards with subversive messages denouncing the lies and crimes of the Nazi regime. They know, however, that this is a futile act and that, sooner or later, they will be caught. Although they hope that their messages will resonate in the hearts and minds of some of their fellow Berliners, they accept their destiny as victims-to-be. This has profound ethical consequences: should we resist when we know extermination awaits us, or, as the fate of some other characters affected by the Quangel's action seems to indicate, should we not further endanger life? Is the Quangel's determination to savage their moral integrity an act of symbolic universality, or is Fallada being more pessimistic? Perhaps the reader wants to believe that there should be clearer answers and explanations in the face of an evil such as Nazism. Part of the ominous picture that Fallada presents in this novel is considering that impossibility.
    • 4/5
      After their son falls in the war, Otto and Anna Quangel begin their own tiny act of resistance. Over the course of years, they leave hundreds of anonymous handwritten postcards in public places all over Berlin. Unbeknownst to them, most of the cards fall into the hands of the Gestapo almost immediately, and one policeman is consumed by the need to discover who is behind the cards.This book was delicious in places, and unbearable in others. Slow to get off the ground, I staggered through the first half, but the second half was excellent and the ending was breathtaking. The characters were mostly unpleasant, but I found myself intrigued by their fate. The writing itself was lyrical, but I found it hard to love this book because I came so close to giving up on it early on. I’d recommend it, but be prepared to persevere with it to get to the good stuff towards the end.
    • 5/5
      This is one of the best books I have read. Reflects German ordinary citizens life during the war. Excellent in description of life under the Nazi's regime. Excellent in developing characters. In depth description how fear of government can control your everyday existence.
    • 5/5
      Loosely based on actual events, Alone in Berlin centers around the ultimately futile resistance efforts in WWII Berlin of husband and wife Otto and Anna Quangel. When their only son is killed in action, and after a few other events at work and in their apartment building, something in Otto snaps and he can no longer stay quiet. He decides to leave anonymous postcards decrying Hitler and his regime randomly (time and place) throughout Berlin. His wife helps him with the postcards. There are related threads involving family, friends, co-workers, neighbors and how their lives are affected by the war, the Nazi regime, and even the Quangels' attempted resistance.The power of this novel is in its portrayal of the absolute fear and paranoia instilled in people during the war. Neighbor quickly turns against neighbor if it means staying - however briefly - in the good graces of the police, SS, or whichever authority they see fit. The constant overhanging threat of being turned in or discovered looms large. The book builds up not only the tension of Gestapo inspector Escherich's homing in on the 'Hobgoblin', but of neighbor vs neighbor or even family turning against family, of the results of the slightest - even chance - malfeasance, of psychological and physical terror instilled in everyday people. Given these dangers, therefore, even the most minor shows of resistance take on so much more power. It shows that there were those who made the dangerous decision to fight the very real threats of beatings, torture, imprisonment, death, and/or being sent to camps. They were willing to accept these (likely) consequences in order to be able to live with themselves, to create some semblance of justice and good in the face of the fear-riddled, unjust world they were living in. This edition includes an afterword not only about Fallada and the context in which he wrote the novel, but also some of the key differences between the true story and this fictionalized version. There is also a section with copies of some of the actual documents from the case against Otto and Elise Hampel which bring the story even more to life.
    • 5/5
      This book is a study of relentlessness by uncommon characters.It eloquently but simply demonstrates the values of two people whose singlemindedness brings anxiety and ultimately degradation to the Reich whose inability to stop a couples' pursuit of justice for their dead son becomes an obsession for many in the Gestapo.The writing is deceptively minimalist, yet satisfies.The characters are skillfully drawn, engaging, and heroic. This is one of the most unforgettable books I have read in a liferime of reading.
    • 5/5
      If you have ever wondered what it was like to live in Nazi Germany, Fallada tries to show you in this novel. The fear & paranoia fly off every page. At times, I found it difficult to open the book to continue the story. Even those citizens who supported Hitler were so afraid of being accused of some wrong doing that they lived in fear too. A chance comment over heard by a neighbour could precipitate a visit from the police or worse, the Gestapo. Fallada live in Germany during the Hitler reign and spent the last years of the War imprisoned in a mental institution, a sentence that usually resulted in death. The novel is based on the true story of a German couple who had supported Hitler but changed that support when the wife's brother was killed in one of the early battles in France. They started to leave in public places post cards that contained anti Hitler comments. It took the authorities three years to catch and eventually execute them. Fallada tries to show that while their protest did nothing to change what the German government did, that by this small protest they rose above what was going on and they could never be accused of ignoring what went on.