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    Solo en Berlín: La recuperación de una obra maestra de las letras alemanas.
    Unavailable
    Solo en Berlín: La recuperación de una obra maestra de las letras alemanas.
    Unavailable
    Solo en Berlín: La recuperación de una obra maestra de las letras alemanas.
    Ebook821 pages14 hours

    Solo en Berlín: La recuperación de una obra maestra de las letras alemanas.

    By Hans Fallada

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Berlín, 1940, la ciudad está dominada por el miedo. Cuando la cartera Eva Kluge llega a casa de los Quangel en el número 55 de la calle Jablonski, con una carta que les anuncia la muerte de su único hijo en un campo de batalla francés, el golpe es terrible, insoportable. Es el principio de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y toda la ciudad, todo el país y pronto media Europa, vive bajo el yugo del régimen de Hitler. Otto y Anna Quangel se plantean entonces si están haciendo todo lo que está en sus manos para luchar contra el Tercer Reich. Sí, son gente corriente, sin ninguna posibilidad frente al régimen nazi, pero ¿realmente se pueden quedar de brazos cruzados cuando la barbarie se ha llevado a lo que más amaban en el mundo? ¿Pueden compartir el mismo silencio cómplice que la inmensa mayoría de la población? Empieza entonces un acto de heroicidad que llevará a Otto a distribuir tarjetas postales de denuncia a Hitler por todo Berlín euros y a perseguir al ambicioso inspector de la Gestapo Escherich. Muy probablemente constituye un acto suicida y también un peligroso juego en el que, sea quien sea quien pierda, lo pagará con su propia vida.
    LanguageEspañol
    PublisherMaeva Ediciones
    Release dateApr 27, 2011
    ISBN9788415120452
    Unavailable
    Solo en Berlín: La recuperación de una obra maestra de las letras alemanas.
    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 Solo en Berlín

    4.5/5

    865 ratings78 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This was a keep me reading all night book. The author does a really good job of keeping the tension at just the right level to keep you reading.
      As this is the fictional telling of real events you know that Otto and Anna will be caught and executed but you really want them to get away with it.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. Fallada's portrayal of his characters as both pathetic and heroic gives them a three-dimensionality that makes it all seem so real, and it was. This book was inspired by real events. While reading this book, It was hard not to draw comparisons to the world today, and it made it so much more apparent how the Nazis managed to have so much power. It is a brilliant book, and I highly recommend it.
    • 4/5
      Full of gruelingly honest, complex feeling this book manages to surprise while seeming inevitable. A forgotten perspective on a thoroughly studied time(German civilians during WWII). Worth it for the prison room-mate.
    • 5/5
      A spellbinding and compelling novel about WWII Berlin. This story is rich in details of the Party, the resistance, the culture, and society. A very unassuming couple take on the Nazis by writing postcards with anti-Nazi information contained upon them. They then place them all around Berlin where they will be found. They eluded the authorities for three years before they were caught and finally executed. Even the afterword about the author's life and the real-life case this book was based upon was excellent. Counting the afterword and all the original documents (from the Nazi files) the book is at 600 pages.
    • 4/5
      Every Man Dies Alone (1947) is a gripping crime thriller set in Berlin, it is based on the true case of a married couple who committed acts of civil disobedience/resistance against the Nazis during WWII. The German author Hans Fallada (1893-1947) was held in an insane asylum during the war, and the novel can be seen as an indictment of German society as being insane. Those who do the right thing are insane or criminal, while the criminally insane run the state. In fascist Germany, the state (Fuhrer) thinks for everyone, the individual is secondary. This creates a situation where everyone is looking out for themselves, because everyone is guilty of some transgression and doesn't want to be revealed. Alienation and isolation divide society, "we all acted alone, we were caught alone, and every one of us will have to die alone." - but in the end Fallada offers a way out of the trap: "We live not for ourselves, but for others. What we make of ourselves we make not for ourselves, but for others..."The characters are fascinating because Fallada drew on his own direct experiences so we get more than 50 portraits, good and evil. It's authentic because Fallada lived through it. The bad guys are mostly criminal brutes, hardly the super-men embodiments of evil so often betrayed, just thugs corrupted by greed, drugs, sex and power. The depiction of working class life on the home front is illuminating. The literary qualities are excellent if not at times a bit old fashioned. Yet, given the time and place it was created, by a German for Germans right after the war, it's remarkably insightful and damning. Probably one reason Primo Levi once said of it "the greatest book about German resistance to the Nazis." Indeed it seems amazing Fallada wasn't killed by the Nazi's and was able to hide his true sentiments for so long. He died before seeing it in print though, completing it in a blistering 25 days. As Hans Fallada says in the novel, "Everyone facing death, especially premature death, will be kicking themselves for each wasted hour."Every Man Dies Alone is considered the first anti-Nazi novel after the war. On the French side, the first was The Forests of the Night (also published in 1947) by Jean-Louis Curtis. It contains acid portraits of French citizens in a small town who were apathetic about the Germans, played around at resisting, or even welcomed the occupiers. It's a similar novel from the same time period and won the Prix Goncourt - it has been out of print (in English) since 1951, an actual "lost" novel.
    • 4/5
      I struggled with the start of this book - the style of the writing, the criminal and repulsive characters and I didn't want to carry on. However, after a week's break from it I found it picked up a lot particularly when it became just the husband and wife versus the policeman.It's also a horrifying book as it depicts the fear and paranoia of living under the Nazis and the seeming futility of their small resistance. That it was written by an author who lived through this makes it even more so. So although I struggled with the style a lot, I'm glad I read this as it feels like an important book about a topic that's rarely mentioned.
    • 5/5
      This a compelling, horrifying, fascinating and, at the same time, ultimately uplifting book that takes the reader through several years of Nazi era Berlin. At the center of the story is the small and ultimately futile, but still potentially deadly, resistance carried out by a middle-aged couple, the Quangels, who have been embittered by the death of their son, a soldier, during the invasion of France. But is their gesture really futile? That is the question at the novel's philosophical core. In the meantime, we are shown the inner workings of the Nazi tyranny on a day-to-day level. Honest citizens, street-level grifters, Gestapo inspectors and more all come under Fallada's acute and wry observation, with the grinding effects of the relentless months and years of terror, with the threat of arrest, torture, imprisonment and death lurking behind every neighbor's peephole and every knock on the door. To what extent does compliance equal complicity? This question, too, hums below the surface of the narrative like an electrical current. Fallada himself lived through this time and place, intermittently finding employment and harrassment from the Nazi powers, so his attitude toward his characters is far from doctrinaire. I almost never hand out 5-star ratings, but for this book, I did so.
    • 5/5
      Amazing writer, definitely a re-read. Excellent story.
    • 5/5
      It is difficult to believe that this novel was written in 24 days! A story of resistance to the Nazis by German citizens, based on a true story, is immediately engaging. The characters are memorable, engaging, and evocative. Perhaps the most memorable was a detective who was the only convert based on the subversive notes written and distributed by Otto & Anna. Ultimately, the reader must come to terms with the reality of resistance. It may or may not have the desired coercive impact, yet what matters more is the principle behind the act, and the effort to remain "decent" in the face of evil. Great novel!
    • 5/5
      ALONE IN BERLIN is a book that you want everyone to read - to fully appreciate the life that we haveand to stay alert for any signs that it is again being turned into horror, fear, cruelty, and murderous brutality.In honor of author Hans Fallada, what will we do with our next 24 days?
    • 5/5
      Every Man Dies Alone is based on the true story of Otto and Elise Hampel, a working-class couple from Berlin, who began their own campaign against the Nazi regime following Elise's brother's death in action. For more than two years the Hampels wrote and covertly distributed postcards around Berlin, telling the German people there would never be peace under the Nazis. It took Fallada twenty-four days to write this book in 1947. He was a drug/alcohol addict and had just been released from a Nazi insane asylum. It was to be the final year of his life.

      When Otto and and Anna Quangel's soldier son is killed in action, they are helpless in their grief. They decide that anonymous postcards can be dropped around the city in what they consider their own act of subversion. They know if they are caught it will mean certain death. They are not the only characters we get to know in this book. The reader will witness the terror imposed by the Nazis on all citizens, an extensive process of physical and emotional violence. The story is divided between the average citizens and the Gestapo's pursuit of them.

      This book is difficult to review. Some of the characters are farcical but it also reads like a straightforward thriller. Ultimately I was fascinated by the chilling portrait of everyday Germans and how they tried to do something, even an act that seemed small, in order to have some impact on the horror of their lives. I also want to commend the translator, Michael Hofman. The book was impeccably translated. While not the book for everyone, I highly recommend this to any fan of WWII fiction.
    • 5/5
      An extraordinary novel I am embarrassed to say I was not aware of until Melville Books (bless them) sent me a notice about it. Where the hell have I been?Primo Levi called EVERY MAN DIES ALONE "The greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis." The Montreal Gazette said, "It is no wonder the work's reception in the English-speaking world has been the journalistic equivalent of a collective dropped jaw." It is not only politically important (dare I say, especially in these times?), but it extraordinarily readable. Riveting, in fact. Every character crackles with vibrancy, every decision is perfectly credible. There isn't a speck of cliche. It is heartbreaking, sometimes very funny, thrilling, exhausting, beautiful and ironically life-affirming. The small man/woman, going about life. Being brave beyond measure, even in the face of . . . well, you know. You may be thinking you've read quite enough books about WWI. May I humbly suggest that unless you've read EVERY MAN DIES ALONE you need to read just one more.I cannot recommend this highly enough.
    • 5/5
      I have had possession of this book for a long time, but it took a while for me to start reading it. I picked up this book to actually read in the first place because my copy had this quote on the front cover: "The greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis." (Primo Levi) Being personally depressed about the results of the 2016 United States presidential election and seeing the American government trying to diminish democracy, I wanted to see what was done in the past in similar situations and was initially attracted to that word "resistance". I find books about the Holocaust hard but necessary to read and tend to space them out so as not to read them too close together. I usually do not like reading fiction about the Holocaust because the truth about that event is terrible enough that I see little use for creating fiction about it. And yet. This book is a notable example of Holocaust fiction that works well because it is by a noted German author who lived in Germany his whole life - even through the darkest hours of WWII. It is also based on a true story. In this time for me of political turbulence and fear in my own country of the United States, I desperately needed to read a book about resistance to evil forces. I needed to know that moral forces can be present in the seeming abyss of the darkest hours.This is not to say that this was as easy read. To the contrary. The plot was complicated, the book was lengthy, and there were many characters about whom I had to take notes. In addition, I wrote down a short summary of each chapter, no more than a sentence or two in length, so that I could keep track of everything that happened. This proved helpful to me. Fortunately, each chapter was short so I could do this easily.It took me a long time to read this book. I mostly needed to stop reading after each short chapter or two to contemplate what just happened. I don't usually read books in this manner, but Holocaust reading pushes heavily on my heart for personal reasons.I would suggest to anyone who wants to read this book to read the biography of the author first. That will give you a better perspective on why he chose to write this book. At the end of the book, there are pictures of the couple upon whom this book was based as well as pictures of the postcards they distributed and their signed confessions. Since my dad was a refugee from Nazi Germany in 1938, escaping penniless and fleeing for his life, my eternal gratitude goes to anyone who helped Nazi victims in any way. Resistance was not easy. The true heroes of this book are both the couple on whom this novel was based and the author himself, all of who stood for morality in a time of pervasive evil.This is a book well worth the time and effort I put into reading it. I recommend it highly to those who are interested in learning more about Germany resistance to the Nazis during wartime.
    • 4/5
      Not quite in the great literature class that some have indicated, but a good read, an intriguing fictionalisation of an odd case of resistance against the Nazis. My main pleasure was in finding i could breeze through 650 pages in the original German, which indicates it has a clear style and story-line. The characters don't have much inner life, but are varied and believable, from the dour working man at the heart of the action to the virtuous innocent girl and the horse-betting lowlife who become unwittingly embroiled. Best scene of all is the detective's cat-and-mouse interrogation of the low-life; he uses no violence but violence is everywhere. There are strange non-sequiturs or non-credible at crucial points: the leftist cell-members sitting discussing their decisions in the middle of an all-Nazi event; the police boss disliking his subordinate's tactics so much that he throws him into the dungeons, while seeming unable to actually tell him what to do; the cultured music conductor living a fine life in a Nazi gaol simply because he can pay his way... and more like that. Some of this may be result of Fallada writing the whole thing in 24 days (itself nearly incredible).
    • 4/5
      My second Fallada, this was not the grimly compelling freefall into darkness that The Drinker was, but a good read in its own right, offering an assortment of captivating characters trying (and sometimes failing) to hold onto their humanity as they make their way across the brutal landscape of Nazi Germany. It asks the question: is an act heroic even if ineffectual?
      "And don't you regret it? Aren't you sorry to lose your life over a stupid stunt like that?
      Quangel cast a sharp glare at the lawyer, his proud, old, tough bird-glare. "At least I stayed decent," he said. "I didn't participate."
      There is much to recommend this book...not least of all, the chilling portrayal of "Karlchen the dog."
    • 5/5
      When I read the back cover of this book, I thought it was conventional crime thiller set in WW2 Berlin. How wrong I was, but it's all the better for that. Based on a true story which from the first few pages is clear will not end well. Written by someone who lived through the time its vivid detail and sense of place is fantastic. The plot itself is quite thin and it's no surprise to read in the afterword that Fallada initially rejected it as a subject for a book. What there is a range of characters of which only a few are that sympathetic, but always compelling. My only gripe would be that many of them are caricatures, which then detracts from their interaction.A definate must read, but not an easy read.
    • 4/5
      I was mesmerised by this book. I didn't have high expectations for a German book from 1947, but having come straight from the precious schmaltz of The Book Thief, Every Man Dies Alone was a fantastic experience. Nowhere before have I found such a credible description of what it must have been like to live as an ordinary German citizen under the Third Reich: the constant worry, the power abuse by the uniformed castes and the sense of inevitable doom. Since it was written in 1947, the Third Reich was stil in the veryrecent past. Seventy short chapters give this story a brisk pace, making this a true page-turner.Initially, I suspected that this was going to be an apologetic book, written by a contrite German a few years after WWII in order to ingratiate oneself with the Allied occupation forces. But as episodes from Fallada's own life make clear, he certainly had had great difficulties during the Nazi era, falling in and out of favour with people like Goebbels, and refusing their suggestions to add chapters to novels where the Nazis would appear as a deus ex machina for the German people. As a reader, you feel that the author has had brushes with Nazi authority and has been able to observe their methods closely. He is also an accomplished writer: characters are nicely fleshed out, and the plot is elegantly woven together by the vicissitudes of apparently isolated people. Though based on a true story, this is a work of fiction, that demonstrates how difficult it was to organise acts of resistance against the Nazis (and how easy to get caught and punished). The end notes mention Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem" and its "Banality of Evil", comparing it the "banality of good" which is described in this book. Resistance doesn't always consist of great heroic acts.Spoiler & Final note: this book read like a screenplay. I think a big screen adaptation is long overdue (even though there is no happy end, since almost every character dies - alone).
    • 5/5
      Hans Fallada was all but forgotten outside Germany when this 1947 novel, Alone in Berlin (US title: Every Man Dies Alone), was reissued in English in 2009, whereupon it became a best seller and reintroduced Hans Fallada's work to a new generation of readers.I came to this book having read More Lives Than One: A Biography of Hans Fallada by Jenny Williams, which was the perfect introduction into the literary world of Hans Fallada.Alone In Berlin really brings alive the day-to-day hell of life under the Nazis - and the ways in which people either compromised their integrity by accepting the regime, or, in some cases, resisted. The insights into life inside Nazi Germany are both fascinating and appalling. The venom of Nazism seeping into every aspect of society leaving no part of daily existence untouched or uncorrupted.Alone In Berlin is also a thriller, and the tension starts from the first page and mounts with each passing chapter. I can only echo the praise that has been heaped on this astonishingly good, rediscovered World War Two masterpiece. It's a truly great book: gripping, profound and essential.5/5
    • 5/5
      This German novel first published in 1947 was inspired by Otto and Elise Hampel who beginning in 1940 wrote 'postcards' decrying Hitler and urging resistance to him and then left the postcards where they hoped they would be fourd. In the novel Otto and Anna Quangel distribute cards saying anti-Nazi things after their son is killed in the invasion of France in 1940. This seems an ineffectual thing to do but it is all they think they can do. Most of the cards promptly come into the hands of the police and Gestapo who spend lots of effort trying to see who is distributing the cards. While this is going on the book is I thought tensely exciting, since if they are caught they will probably be killed. Clearly what they did was futile but their role is to show that there were Germans resisting the evil that had conquered Germany.
    • 3/5
      Nazis: history's equivalent to that team that always gets trounced by the Harlem Globetrotters, the Washington Generals.

      Every time you see Nazis in a movie or read of Nazis in book, you know that they're gonna get theirs in the end. It's akin to something like culturally accepted wisdom to dismiss them as caricatures. But they aren't caricatures (Godwin's Law notwithstanding) -- they existed (DO exist), and for a while there it looked like they might even run things. The period of their ascendancy can hardly be over-examined, because we can't afford anything even remotely resembling it coming about again.

      Hans Fallada (the nom de plume of Rudolf Ditzen) wrote this book in an astonishing 24 days (about the same amount of time it took me to read it -- OY!) upon being released from an insane asylum after the German surrender in WWII. He did not live to see his novel published. I can't even begin to imagine what he experienced. You can see flashes of his talent throughout, but the whole lacks a certain consistency.

      The story is a fictionalized account of the true story of a working class couple that distributed postcards anonymously throughout Berlin urging Germans to revolt, sabotage and generally undermine the Nazis whenever possible. The couple attached great importance to the postcards, believing they were having the desired effect on the populace. Of course the postcards were generally reviled and went unheeded, only holding significance to their authors (think all of us here on Goodreads). Yet even when the couple is captured, learn that their postcard campaign accomplished nothing, and they are condemned to death, Falluda captures their dignity.
    • 5/5
      An amazing novel about ordinary folks doing the small things they can to resist the Nazis in the late 30s in Berlin. The characters are fantastic and the book is steeped in the atmosphere of the opression and deceit that surrounded them.

      It's based on an actual SS file that was handed to the author after he was finally released from a Nazi insame asylum at the end of the war. He wrote this impressive, complex novel in 24 DAYS and died immediately afterwards.

      It's an important book that viscerally provides a look at street-level life during the horror of the time-- and manages to squeak in some humor and hopefulness... GREAT STUFF!!
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 5/5
      An excellent novel. Truly gripping and with a tightly woven plot that sees the characters descending inevitable, gradually towards their fate in Nazi Germany. How much were the German people to blame for the Holocaust? Well this novel helps to show how difficult dissent or any form of protest was. It is interesting to see how the different social groups are represented and how they have reacted and changed in the Nazi regime. I kept thinking to myself while I was reading this which out of the people I know would collaborate or resist if a similar situation occurred now. One of the best books I have ever read about the nature of morality.
    • 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
      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.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      This is an amazing book, thoroughly engrossing. I'm not a fast reader, but I was more than 150 pages into it before the weekend was out. It's as if Dickens were writing in Nazi Germany: there's a light touch and a humor (albeit black humor) about it, even though the subject matter is relentlessly dark. It gives one a sharp sense of what it might have been like to have lived in Berlin in the 1940s. Not pretty -- but a few managed to hang on, desperately, to some humanity.
    • 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
      This amazing novel explores the many facets of the human spirit, amidst a collection of German citizens during the height of Gestapo paranoia in Berlin and its surrounding areas. The plot is rather intricate, but basically involves a mild-mannered older couple, Otto and Anna Quangel (he a carpenter/foreman and she his devoted but surprisingly strong wife), who after the death of their son during the war, quietly defy the Nazis by leaving resistance postcards at various locations throughout Berlin. The premise is based on a true story. The postcards are considered high treason punishable by death; and the novel follows various people in the administration (who go literally insane trying to capture the "Hobgoblin", i.e., postcard writer) and other German citizens who somehow cross paths with the Quangels. The heart of the book reminded me a lot of Eli Wiesel's explorations on how humans face oppression, fear and victimization so differently, especially during this time period. Although certainly very sad and depressing considering the time and subject matter, at the end there is actually a huge triumph of the human spirit. Absolutely nothing in this book plays out like I thought it would and in that way, it is full of interesting twists and surprises. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in how German citizens were affected by the Gestapo during WWII. This novel really is a virtually unknown masterpiece (that would be a great academic choice, in so many ways) and hopefully, it will reach a much larger audience. I now want to read everything that Fallada has written - what a discovery!