March Book of the Month Selection
"Every man dies alone" by Hans Fallada
Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada was translated by Michael Hofmann and contains an afterword by Geoff Wilkes. It was released by Melville House Press on March 3rd, 2009, and is part of a larger project including the publication of his other novels The Drinker and Little Man, What Now?.
First published in Germany in 1947, Every Man Dies Alone is a true masterpiece from a bestselling writer who saw his life crumble following his decision not to flee Germany and his refusal to join the Nazi party.
The novel presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping saga of one working class couple’s decision 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, Otto and Anna Quangel 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, Every Man Dies Alone is 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 for each other.
Prior to WWII, the novels of German writer Hans Fallada (born Rudolf Ditzen) were international bestsellers. But when Jewish producers in Hollywood made his 1932 novel, Little Man, What Now? into a major motion picture, the rising Nazis began to take note of him. His struggles increased after he refused to join the Party and was denounced by neighbors for “anti-Nazi” sympathies. By the end of World War II he’d suffered an alcohol fueled nervous breakdown and was in a Nazi insane asylum. After the war, Fallada went on to write Every Man Dies Alone, based on an actual Gestapo file, but he died in 1947 of a morphine overdose, just before it was published.
“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 vertiginous 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 shoulder and whispers in your ear: “This is how it was. This is what happened.” — Liesl Schillinger, 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
"[A] grim, powerful, epic portrait of life in Germany under Nazi rule. Fallada keeps readers engaged with passionate prose that rushes events along at a thriller-like pace…A welcome resurrection for a great writer crucified by history." — Kirkus
Print
Send the page
Top
Back
