Reviews
"The greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis."-Primo Levi This never-before-translated masterpiece-by a heroic best-selling writer who saw his life crumble when he wouldn't join the Nazi Party-is based on a true story. It presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping saga of one working-class couple who decides to take a stand when their only son is killed at the front. With nothing but their grief and each other against the awesome power of the Reich, they launch a simple, clandestine resistance campaign that soon has an enraged Gestapo on their trail, and a world of terrified neighbors and cynical snitches ready to turn them in. In the end, it's more than an edge-of-your-seat thriller, more than a moving romance, even more than literature of the highest order-it's a deeply stirring story of two people standing up for what's right, and each other. Hans Fallada was one of Germany's best-selling authors-ranking with Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse-prior to the rise of the Nazis. But while those writers fled Germany, Fallada stayed. Refusing to join the Nazi Party, he suffered numerous difficulties, including incarceration in an insane asylum. After the war, he wrote Every Man Dies Alone based on an actual Gestapo file. He died just before its publication in 1947., "The greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis." --Primo Levi "Hans Fallada'sEvery Man Dies Aloneis 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 truethis is who they really were: the Gestapo monsters, the petty informers, the few who dared to resist. Please, donotmiss this." --Alan Furst "A signal literary event of 2009 has occurred. Rescued from the grave, from decades of forgetting, [Every Man Dies Alone] testifies to the lasting value of an intact, if battered, conscience. In a publishing hat trick, Melville House allows English-language readers to sample Fallada's vetiginous variety [and] the keen vision of a troubled man in troubled times, with more breadth, detail, and understanding than most other chroniclers of the era have delivered. To readEvery Man Dies Alone, Fallada's testament to the darkest years of the 20th century, is to be accompanied by a wise, somber ghost who grips your arm and whispers in your ear: 'This is how it was. This is what happened.'" --New York Times Book Review "Every Man Dies Alone...deserves a place among the 20th century's best novels of political witness." --Sam Munson,The National "Every Man Dies Alone[is] a suspense-driven novel...one-of-a-kind." --Alan Furst,Toronto Globe and Mail "Every Man Dies Alone[is] one of the most immediate and authentic fictional accounts of life during the long nightmare of Nazi rule." --The New York Observer "Primo Levi…called this "the greatest book ever written about the German resistance to the Nazis." It is, in retrospect, an understatement. This is a novel that is so powerful, so intense, that it almost hums with electricity." --Minneapolis Star-Tribune " [Every Man Dies Alone] has the suspense of a John le Carré novel, and offers a visceral, chilling portrait of the distrust that permeated everyday German life during the war." --The New Yorker "[A]t once a riveting page turner and a memorable portrait of wartime Berlin...With its vivid cast of characters and pervasive sense of menace, Every Man Dies Alone is an exciting book." -John Powers for Fresh Air / NPR Books We Like Top "Summer Read" pick -On Point Raido, WBUR "...a belated revelation." -San Francisco Chronicle "...necessary and gripping." -The Oregonian, "The greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis." --Primo Levi "Hans Fallada'sEvery Man Dies Aloneis 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 truethis is who they really were: the Gestapo monsters, the petty informers, the few who dared to resist. Please, donotmiss this." --Alan Furst "Grim, powerful epic portrait of life in Gemany under Nazi rule, published shortly after the author's death in 1947 but never before available in English. Fallada was a bestselling novelist before the rise of the Third Reich, but during World War II he was hounded by the Gestapo and psychologically brutalized by Joseph Goebbels, who unsuccessfully tried to force him to write an anti-Semitic book. Sinking into alcohol and drug addiction, he was a broken man by the end of his life, and his final novel is shot through with his despair. Written in a 24-day rush, it was inspired by the real-life case of a working-class husband and wife who conducted a covert three-year propoganda campaign against the Nazi regime. Fallada's fictionalized version centers on Otto and Anna Quangel, who are driven to protest after learning that their only son has died fighting at the front. The protest is small and timid: Otto writes anti-Hitler messages on postcards that he distributes around Berlin, and the Quangels are never certain if they influence any hearts or minds. Nonetheless, they provoke the Gestapo. Fallada reveals a deep understanding of the agency's chain of command, its grisly abuses of power and the culture of fear it cultivated among German citizens. His hefty novel includes a host of characters, from hard-drinking reprobates and factory workers to judges and, in a poignant early passage, an elderly Jewish woman in the Quangel's apartment building who lives in a perpetual state of terror. Most of these people are archetypal to a fault: Otto Quangel rarely strays from a stance of of stoic nobility, and the drunken, proud bloviations pf Gestapo brass occasionally border on the absurd. The characters' fates are clearly telegraphed, yet Fallada keeps readers engaged with passionate prose that rushes events along at a thriller-like pace. And there's stark grandeur in the closing chapters, featuring a Nazi trial, an execution and death in prison. A very welcome resurrection for a great writer crucified by history." --KIRKUS "A signal literary event of 2009 has occurred. Rescued from the grave, from decades of forgetting, [Every Man Dies Alone] testifies to the lasting value of an intact, if battered, conscience. In a publishing hat trick, Melville House allows English-language readers to sample Fallada's vetiginous variety [and] the keen vision of a troubled man in troubled times, with more breadth, detail, and understanding than most other chroniclers of the era have delivered. To readEvery Man Dies Alone, Fallada's testament to the darkest years of the 20th century, is to be accompanied by a wise, somber ghost who grips your arm and whispers in your ear: 'This is how it was. This is what happened.'" --New York Times Book Review "Every Man Dies Alone...deserves a place among the 20th century's best novels of political witness." --Sam Munson,The National "Every Man Dies Alone[is] a suspense-driven novel...one-of-a-kind." --Alan Furst,Toronto Globe and Mail "Every Man Dies Alone[is] one of the most immediate and authentic fictional accounts of life during the long nightmare of Nazi rule." --The New York Observer, "The greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis." --Primo Levi "Hans Fallada's Every Man Dies Alone 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 truethis is who they really were: the Gestapo monsters, the petty informers, the few who dared to resist. Please, do not miss this." --Alan Furst "A signal literary event of 2009 has occurred. Rescued from the grave, from decades of forgetting, [ Every Man Dies Alone ] testifies to the lasting value of an intact, if battered, conscience. In a publishing hat trick, Melville House allows English-language readers to sample Fallada's vetiginous variety [and] the keen vision of a troubled man in troubled times, with more breadth, detail, and understanding than most other chroniclers of the era have delivered. To read Every Man Dies Alone , Fallada's testament to the darkest years of the 20th century, is to be accompanied by a wise, somber ghost who grips your arm and whispers in your ear: 'This is how it was. This is what happened.'" -- New York Times Book Review " Every Man Dies Alone ...deserves a place among the 20th century's best novels of political witness." --Sam Munson, The National " Every Man Dies Alone [is] a suspense-driven novel...one-of-a-kind." --Alan Furst, Toronto Globe and Mail " Every Man Dies Alone [is] one of the most immediate and authentic fictional accounts of life during the long nightmare of Nazi rule." -- The New York Observer "Primo Levi…called this "the greatest book ever written about the German resistance to the Nazis." It is, in retrospect, an understatement. This is a novel that is so powerful, so intense, that it almost hums with electricity." -- Minneapolis Star-Tribune " [Every Man Dies Alone] has the suspense of a John le Carré novel, and offers a visceral, chilling portrait of the distrust that permeated everyday German life during the war." -- The New Yorker "[A]t once a riveting page turner and a memorable portrait of wartime Berlin...With its vivid cast of characters and pervasive sense of menace, Every Man Dies Alone is an exciting book." -John Powers for Fresh Air / NPR Books We Like Top "Summer Read" pick -On Point Raido, WBUR "...a belated revelation." - San Francisco Chronicle "...necessary and gripping." - The Oregonian