Best Selling Books by Hans Fallada

BERLIN, 1940, AND THE CITY IS FILLED WITH FEAR. In the house at 55 Jablonski Strasse, the various occupants are all trying to live under Nazi rule in their own different ways- the nervous Frau Rosenthal, the bulling Hitler-loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm, and the unassuming working-class couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangles 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 his wife's lives. With her help, he begins to drop hundreds of anonymous postcards attacking Hitler in buildings all over the city. If Otto and Anna are caught, they will be executed for treason. As the couple's 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 the petty criminals Kluge and Borkhausen also become involved, blackmail, deception, betrayal and murder ensure, gradually tightening the noose around the Quangels' necks . . . Hans Fallada's gripping and haunting novel was first published in German in 1947. It is both a dark, fast-paced wartime thriller and a chilling portrayal of a paranoid, brutal society, where the smallest action can have fatal consequences, and love has to survive against the cruellest of odds. Michael Hofmann's powerful new translation brings this extraordinary masterpiece to English readers for the very first time. Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada (Penguin Classics). First published in Germany in 1947 and evoking the horror of life in Germany in the Second World War. A rediscovered masterpiecethat makes you want to seek out more works by this great chronicler of events in my own lifetime. - Barry Humphries The other fictional high point of 2009 was Alone in Berlin (Penguin Classics), published in English translation for the first time. 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 Hans Fallada- Alone in Berlin (Penguin Classics). Fallada wrote this just before his death in 1947, brought on by appalling mistreatment by the Nazis. It is an extraordinary book, part thriller, part personal record and translated for the first time. - Justin Cartwright Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin(Penguin Classics) was first published in Germany in 1947 but has taken more than 60 years to appear in English, in an excellent translation by Michael Hofmann. Primo Levi called it 'the greatest book ever written about resistance to the Nazis'. Its resisters are not the brave aristocrats who tried to kill Hitler and save German honour in July 1944, but ordinary working-class Berliners, and part of the fascination of this gripping novelcomes from the vivid and terrible picture it offers of the Nazi regime seen from below. It is indeed an extraordinary accomplishment. - Allan Massie

One of the great German writers of the 20th century draws from his own life to present a “brave, fearless, and honest” tale of one man’s dark descent into depression and alcoholism (The Sunday Times, London) This astonishing, autobiographical tour de force was written by Hans Fallada in an encrypted notebook while he was incarcerated in a Nazi insane asylum. Discovered after his death, it tells the tale—often fierce, often poignant, often extremely funny—of a small businessman losing control as he fights valiantly to blot out an increasingly oppressive society. In a brilliant translation by Charlotte and A.L. Lloyd, it is presented here with an afterword by John Willett that details the life and career of the once internationally acclaimed Hans Fallada, and his fate under the Nazis—which brings out the horror of the events behind the book.

The return of a “superb” forgotten masterpiece about a young couple living in Weimar Germany during the Nazi’s rise to power (Graham Greene) Written just before the Nazis came to power, this darkly enchanting novel tells the simple story of a young couple trying to eke out a devent life amidst an economic crisis that’s transforming their country into a place of anger and despair. It was an international bestseller upon its release, and made into a Hollywood movie—by Jewish producers, which prompted the rising Nazis to begin paying ominously close attention to Hans Fallada, even as his novels held out stirring hope for the human spirit. Ultimately, it is the book that led to Hans Fallada’s downfall with the Nazis. It is presented here in its first-ever uncut translation, by Susan Bennett, and with an afterword by Philip Brady that details the calamitous background of the novel, its worldwide reception, and how it turned out to be, for the author, a dangerous book. “Painfully true to life . . . I have read nothing so engaging as Little Man, What Now? for a long time.” —Thomas Mann

Tells the story of a working-class German couple who lose their son to war and begin a small resistance movement against Nazi power.

Hailed as “Fallada’s best book” (The New Yorker), this sprawling post-WWI is a portrait of Berlin in a time of great upheaval—and of the common man’s struggle to survive it all Set in Weimar Germany soon after Germany’s catastrophic loss of World War I, the story follows a young gambler who loses everything in Berlin, then flees the chaotic city, where worthless money and shortages are causing pandemonium. Once in the countryside, however, he finds a defeated German army that has decamped there to foment insurrection. Somehow, amidst it all, he finds romance—it’s The Year of Living Dangerously in a European setting. Fast-moving as a thriller, fascinating as the best historical fiction, and with lyrical prose that packs a powerful emotional punch, Wolf Among Wolves is the equal of Fallada’s acclaimed Every Man Dies Alone as an immensely absorbing work of important literature. “An unmissably brilliant portrait of Berlin before the Nazis.” —The Times of London

“I lived the same life as everyone else, the life of ordinary people, the masses.” Sitting in a prison cell in the autumn of 1944, the German author Hans Fallada sums up his life under the National Socialist dictatorship, the time of “inward emigration”. Under conditions of close confinement, in constant fear of discovery, he writes himself free from the nightmare of the Nazi years. He records his thoughts about spying and denunciation, about the threat to his livelihood and his literary work and about the fate of many friends and contemporaries. The confessional mode did not come naturally to Fallada, but in the mental and emotional distress of 1944, self-reflection became a survival strategy. Fallada’s frank and sometimes provocative memoirs were thought for many years to have been lost. They are published here for the first time.

"Anton und Gerda" is Hans Fallada's second book, and it suffered the same fate as his first, "Der junge Goedeschal," at the time.This does not, though, preclude today's readers from learning about the young Fallada in his early work, which is still committed to fading expressionism. Furthermore, "Anton und Gerda" alludes to the "neo-expressionist" poet of "Kleiner Mann, was nun?" in a number of ways.

A powerful story of the shattering effects of the First World War on both a family and a country - from Hans Fallada, bestselling author of Alone in Berlin 'You only want to tyrannise, you're only happy when we're all trembling before you. You're just like your Kaiser. He who doesn't obey is shot down...' Gustav Hackendahl's will is law. Known as 'Iron Gustav', he runs his family and his Berlin carriage business with stern, unyielding discipline. But his children have wills of their own, and soon they slip from his control - some to better lives, some towards disaster. As war breaks out and Gustav's beloved Germany is devastated by hardship and violence, he finds everything he believes in destroyed. Can the man of iron endure, or even change? Brutal and moving, written with Hans Fallada's gift for capturing the small tragedies of ordinary lives, Iron Gustav is a heartbreaking family chronicle and an unflinching portrayal of the First World War and its aftermath.

This is Hans Fallada's raw, vivid account of a town rife with corruption, greed and brutality. The book was first published in 1931 and written as Weimar Germany collapsed around Fallada.

For Willi Kufult, prison life means staying out of trouble, keeping his cell clean, snagging a precious piece of tobacco, and dreaming of the day of his release. Then he gets out. As Willi tries to make a new life for himself in Hamburg, finding a job and even love, he still cannot escape his past. Gradually he becomes sucked into a world of drink, desperation, deceit, and, with one terrible act, he is ensnared in a noose of his own making . . . Hans Fallada, whose famous works include Alone in Berlin and The Drinker, brilliantly crafts this dark and moving novel, originally written in 1934, as he describes a seedy criminal underworld of shabby lives and violent deeds, showing how our actions always catch up with us. His work is unparalleled, and Once a Jailbird is a fantastic title to add to Fallada’s recently translated works. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Darkly funny, searingly honest short stories from Hans Fallada, author of bestselling Alone in Berlin In these stories, criminals lament how hard it is to scrape a living by breaking and entering; families measure their daily struggles in marks and pfennigs; a convict makes a desperate leap from a moving train; a ring - and with it a marriage - is lost in a basket of potatoes. Here, as in his novels, Fallada is by turns tough, darkly funny, streetwise and effortlessly engaging, writing with acute feeling about ordinary lives shaped by forces larger than themselves: addiction, love, money.

Noveller. Tales of low-lifes, grifters and ordinary people trying to make ends meet in pre-war Germany

Childhood memories of Fallada.In a similar manner to "Tales from the Murkelei," the real and the imagined are intertwined in an entertaining way here. Fallada describes the happy, whimsical aspects of his adolescence and adolescence in Berlin's "Reichsgerichtliche" parental home at the turn of the century. He speaks of family holidays, childhood bonds and struggles, and the Wilhelminian school system's pressures in bright, vibrant images.

Previously unpublished stories by the bestselling author of Alone in Berlin. In September 1925, Hans Fallada handed himself in to the police. Not yet a bestselling author, Fallada had repeatedly embezzled funds to finance his alcohol and morphine addictions. Desperate to escape his demons, he sought a prison cell. Now court documents from Fallada's imprisonment have recently been rediscovered, and with them a never-before seen story collection. Peopled by complex characters at odds with society, Fallada's stories tackle hitherto taboo topics such as rape and abortion, and explore the lives of women and male outsiders. These stories reveal to a new generation of readers Fallada's immense gifts and his intense inner battles.

Drawing on Hans Fallada's own history of addiction, these two stories are written with a remarkable, tough, spartan clarity. As a man desperately, haplessly tries to get enough morphine to make it through the day and a drunk embezzler struggles to get himself arrested, they are at one second crushing, the next darkly comic.

This book tells the story of events that occur in Carwitz, Mecklenburg.On his smallholding there, Fallada catches the idyll of family and animal life.

Badger matures, loses a few brothers, has quarrels with his mum, is pursued by fox, leaves, moves again, and eventually settles in with the "Ditzens," Hans Fallada's family. They don't like him because he destroys the cornfield. He's meant to be wiped out, but that doesn't happen. They are ecstatic that they are unable to contact him. The whole thing is written in a humorous manner. But it's still unromantically distant; badgers, foxes, and other animals are ironized as "self-sufficient," which means carrots, chickens and corn.They still come first, and while wild animals are appealing to the eye, they must die if they do too much harm.It's a mentality seen, for example, in Otto Boris' "Fuchs Schade" as well, and it's most likely attributable to the period in which it was published (war and post-war years).Even if one overlooks this and a few slight contradictions, such as the foxes' green eyes (there are, admittedly, worse offenses), "Fridolin" is a fun, linguistically appealing read for adults.A tragic sidenote: the manuscript was sent to Fallada's daughter Mücke as a Christmas gift three years before his death in a mental institution during his "happy" period in Carwitz.

A study of Mecklemburg in the 1912/1913s, disguised as a fairy tale.

In 'Jeder stirbt für sich allein' entfaltet Hans Fallada eine eindringliche Erzählung über Mut und Widerstand im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland. Der Roman basiert auf der wahren Geschichte eines Ehepaars, das – erschüttert durch den Verlust ihres Sohnes im Krieg – eine Reihe von Postkarten mit antifaschistischen Botschaften an ihre Nachbarn verteilt. Durch seinen eindringlichen, realistischen Stil und die dichte atmosphärische Schilderung gelingt es Fallada, die innere Zerrissenheit der Figuren und die ständige Bedrohung durch das Regime authentisch darzustellen. Der literarische Kontext des Werkes hebt die universellen Themen von Verzweiflung, Hoffnung und individuellem Widerstand hervor, während sie die Brutalität und das Unrecht eines totalitären Systems beleuchtet. Hans Fallada, ein Meister der sozialen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts, war selbst ein Zeitzeuge der nationalsozialistischen Repression. Sein Leben war geprägt von persönlichen Krisen und einem tiefen Verständnis für die menschlichen Abgründe. Nach einigen Jahren in psychischen und wirtschaftlichen Schwierigkeiten fand er in den 1940er Jahren den Antrieb, diese erschütternde Geschichte zu erzählen, die sowohl als gesellschaftskritisches Werk als auch als Mahnmal für die Toten der Diktatur gilt. 'Jeder stirbt für sich allein' ist ein unerlässlicher Lesestoff für alle, die sich mit den Themen Menschlichkeit und Zivilcourage in Zeiten der Barbarei auseinandersetzen möchten. Falladas ungeschönte Darstellung der moralischen Konflikte und kleinen Heldentaten des Alltags regt dazu an, das eigene Verhalten in der Gesellschaft zu hinterfragen. Leser werden in eine bewegende Zeit versetzt und aufgefordert, über die Tragweiten von individuellem Handeln nachzudenken.

Neues von Hans Fallada entdecken: Die hier versammelten Anekdoten, Berichte, Erzählungen und Reden, die von der Mitte der 1920er Jahre bis zu seinem Tod 1947 reichen, sind zum Teil wenig bekannt oder noch gänzlich unveröffentlicht. Sie offenbaren, in welchem Maße der Autor ein einzigartiges Gespür für soziale Problemlagen entwickelt, sensibel Wirklichkeit beobachtet und künstlerische Mittel findet, um mit wenigen Strichen welthaltige Geschichten zu entwerfen – humorig, ironisch, manchmal auch sarkastisch. Falladas Glaube an die »Anständigkeit des Menschen« zeigt sich dabei jedoch stets unerschütterlich. E-Book mit Seitenzählung der gedruckten Ausgabe: Buch und E-Book können parallel benutzt werden.

Es ist die Zeit zwischen Krieg und Frieden: April 1945; der Untergang hat stattgefunden – Deutschland liegt am Boden. Die Gräueltaten der Nazis werden vielen erst jetzt bewusst. Die deutsche Bevölkerung ahnt, was auf sie zukommen mag. In den Köpfen und Herzen und Träumen der Menschen geht der Krieg unvermittelt weiter. Der Schriftsteller Doll kann sich von den Schrecken der Bombennächte nicht lösen. Um seine Mitschuld wissend, versucht er die Russen willkommen zu heißen. Doch diese machen keine Unterschiede zwischen den Deutschen. Die Handlung weißt nur allzu leicht erkennbare Parallelen mit dem Schicksal Falladas nach dem Kriege auf. Auch er ahnte die sich aufzeichnende Bürde der Schuld. Die fast wild ausgelassene Stimmung dieser sonst ländlich stillen Kinder erklärte sich durch die Weinflaschen, die sie in ihren Händen hielten. Eben gerade, als Frau Doll von ihrem Rade sprang, schlüpfte ein Junge aus dem Tor des Hotels, die Hände voll neuer Flaschen. Die Kinder auf der Straße begrüßten ihren Kameraden mit einem Jubelgeschrei, das fast dem Aufheulen eines jungen Wolfsrudels glich. Sie ließen die Flaschen, die sie in der Hand hatten, ob sie nun ganz, teilweise oder gar nicht gefüllt waren, achtlos auf dem Pflaster zersplittern und stürzten sich auf die neuen, denen sie ohne weiteres die Hälse auf den Steinstufen der Hoteltreppe abschlugen, worauf sie die Flaschen zu den Kindermündern erhoben. Null Papier Verlag www.null-papier.de

Berlin, zur Zeit der Weltwirtschaftskrise 1928: Gustav Hartmann, einst Fuhrunternehmer, kann als Droschkenkutscher seine Familie nicht mehr ernähren. Automobile Taxen werden von den Kunden bevorzugt. Vor seiner Frau verheimlicht er diese Situation, indem er sich vom Gastwirt Fietzke Geld leiht. Als Sicherheit verpfändet er das Grundstück mit dem Wohnhaus darauf. Durch Zufall erfährt seine Familie davon und will ihn für unzurechnungsfähig erklären lassen. Nach einer Vorladung vor Gericht verlässt er mit seiner Droschke die Stadt ohne bestimmtes Ziel. Ein Zeitungsreporter spürt ihn auf und verspricht ihm 500,- Mark für eine Fahrt nach Paris und begleitet ihn dorthin. Durch den Zeitungsreporter erfährt nun die breite Öffentlichkeit von seinem Vorhaben. Die Information darüber dringt bis in die kleinsten Gemeinden vor, die dem Durchreisenden nun jeweils einen begeisterten Empfang bescheren. Als er endlich in Paris ankommt, interessiert sich die Öffentlichkeit jedoch zunächst nicht für ihn, da Charles Lindbergh gerade seinen ersten Flug über den Atlantik beendet hat und somit Gustav mit seiner Droschkenfahrt in den Schatten des öffentlichen Interesses stellt. Entmutigen lässt er sich dadurch aber nicht. Er tritt die Heimreise von Paris nach Berlin an und als er dort erfolgreich seine Rückreise beendet, wird er vom wartenden Publikum begeistert empfangen. Er versöhnt sich mit seiner Familie und beschließt, das auf der Reise erworbene Geld in eine Automobilwerkstatt mit Tankstelle zu investieren.

Nouvelle édition intégrale

In weerwil van de grote economische crisis van de jaren twintig geloven verkoper Johannes Pinneberg en zijn vrouw Engeltje in het geluk. Maar dat geluk wil kort voor de opkomst van de nationaalsocialisten maar niet komen. Pinneberg is amper met zijn Engeltje getrouwd en de eerste problemen doen zich al voor. De strijd om het overleven begint en het kleine jongetje heeft melk en schone luiers nodig. Als verkoper op de afdeling herenkleding in het warenhuis leert Pinneberg: de kleine man moet werken als een paard of hij vliegt eruit. En Pinneberg vliegt eruit omdat hij te weinig omzet haalt. Hij, die zich superieur voelt aan de `kleine luiden, moet zich aansluiten bij het leger van miljoenen werklozen. Maar Engeltje, zijn lieve en dappere vrouw, geeft niet op en neemt het heft van het leven van haar vertwijfelde man in handen. Wat nu, kleine man? is naast Alleen in Berlijn Falladas beroemdste werk en neemt ons mee naar de roerige jaren twintig van de vorige eeuw. De tijd van de beurskrach en massawerkloosheid, maar ook van versnelling en vooruitgang met neonreclame, film, jazz, protestmarsen van werklozen en knokploegen van de nazis. De lezer wordt opnieuw geboeid door de schijnbaar simpele verteltrant, die vaak een bijna filmisch effect heeft. Van deze roman over de liefde en de angst voor sociale neergang zijn miljoenen exemplaren verkocht. De schrijver is er wereldberoemd door geworden en het boek is tot nu toe viermaal verfilmd. Net als Alleen in Berlijn is ook Wat nu, kleine man? wereldwijd herontdekt. Het boek is actueler dan ooit.

Falladas Lieblingsbuch. Seit Generationen wissen die Leute auf der Insel Rügen, dass mit den Gäntschows nicht gut Kirschen essen ist. Auch Johannes, der letzte Spross dieser Sippe, macht keine Ausnahme. Nur Christiane, seine große Liebe seit Kindheitstagen, hält zu ihm. Gäntschow aber kann nicht aus seiner Haut: Er will selbständig sein und frei. Zu spät erkennt er, dass er so auch Christiane verliert. Dieser Roman über einen kauzigen Helden und dessen merkwürdiges Glück war für Fallada sein „schönstes, reifstes und reichstes Buch“.