An unbearably tense, deeply moving thriller set in wartime Berlin, which celebrates the quiet heroism of resistance in the face of brutality and shows the merciless human cost of conflict.
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780141189383
Number of pages: 608
Weight: 412 g
Dimensions: 198 x 128 x 26 mm
One of the most extraordinary and compelling novels written about World War II. Ever. - Alan Furst
Terrific ... a fast-moving, important and astutely deadpan thriller. - Irish Times
A classic study of a paranoid society. Fallada's scope is extraordinary. Alone in Berlin is ... as morally powerful as anything I've ever read. - Charlotte Moore, Telegraph
The greatest book ever written about the German resistance to the Nazis. - Primo Levi
Fallada assembles a cast of vivid low-life characters, stoolies, thieves and whores - James Buchan, Guardian
Visceral, chilling ... has the suspense of a Le Carré novel - New Yorker
A classic study of a paranoid society. Fallada's scope is extraordinary. Alone in Berlin is ... as morally powerful as anything I've ever read - Charlotte Moore, Telegraph
First published in Germany in 1947 and evoking the horror of life in Germany in the Second World War. A rediscovered masterpiece that makes you want to seek out more works by this great chronicler of events in my own lifetime. - Barry Humphries, Books of the Year, Sunday Telegraph
The other fictional high point of 2009 was Alone in Berlin ... Hans Fallada's 1947 portrait of an ordinary German couple stung into a life of protest by the death of their soldier son is harrowing and masterly. - David Robson, Books of the Year, Sunday Telegraph
[This novel] suggests that resistance to evil is rarely straightforward, mostly futile, and generally doomed. Yet to the novel's aching, unanswered question: 'Does it matter?' there is in this strange and compelling story to be found a reply in the affirmative. Primo Levi had it right: This is the great novel of German resistance. - Richard Flanagan
Although I found reading this book more challenging than what I'm used to reading, I stuck with it and thought it was absolutely brilliant. Filled with a range of complex characters, it takes you on a journey of... More
Excellent read, its a good read about resilience in Berlin under Nazi rule. Book starts well, but then slows down a little in the middle. But the ending is lovely although a little sad! A must read book!
My grandmother spent her late teens and early twenties in war time Berlin, so I know many stories, but more about the effects of war rather than the effects of nazism. This book really helped me to understand the... More
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