Alone in Berlin

Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: the nervous Frau Rosenthal, the bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and the unassuming working-class couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels 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 Anna’s life. With her help, he begins to drop hundreds of anonymous postcards attacking Hitler in stairwells and offices all over the city. If they are caught, they will be executed for treason.

As their 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 ensue, gradually tightening the noose around the Quangels’ necks …

Louise Willder, Copywriting Manager, on Alone in Berlin:

'Alone in Berlin is an extraordinarily raw, powerful and gripping novel from the little-known German writer Hans Fallada. It’s translated into English for the first time by Michael Hofmann. As I wrote the blurb for it I was one of the first people to read it in English, which felt like an incredible privilege. The story gets going when Otto and Anna discover their son has been killed fighting in the war, and decide they must put a stop to Hitler’s aggression. They decide to do this by dropping hundreds of anonymous postcards attacking Hitler all over the city. When this comes to the attention of the Gestapo the novel becomes a cat-and-mouse thriller, but it’s also much more than that. It has an atmosphere of dread and paranoia and a visceral power I’ve rarely experienced in a novel. A lot of this comes from the author himself, Hans Fallada, who led a very tortured life: an alcoholic and morphine addict, who spent roughly a seventh of his life in prison, and who wrote incredibly quickly (the first draft of this novel was completed in 24 days!). For me, this gave Alone in Berlin a sense of utter immediacy and authenticity – as if it comes straight from the gut. I really hope this new edition is going to bring Fallada to a much wider audience.'