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Alone in Berlin (Penguin Modern Classics) |  | Author: Hans Fallada
Creator: Michael Hofmann
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £4.99
as of 9/9/2010 14:07 CDT details
You Save: £5.00 (50%)
New (36) Used (11) from £3.05
Seller: Amazon.co.uk
Rating:  reviews
Sales Rank: 97
Media: Paperback
Pages: 608
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1.2
ISBN: 014118938X
EAN: 9780141189383
ASIN: 014118938X
Publication Date: January 28, 2010
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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Product Description
Its 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 bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and the unassuming couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels receive the news that their son has been killed.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Brilliant, emotional and unputdownable! September 3, 2010
RT Twinem (Bristol, UK)
Every so often we pick up a book that is truly unputdownable, a book that is so well written, a book that has so much feeling and emotion it lives in the memory for a very long time...Alone in Berlin certainly did that for me. I was attracted firstly to the cover of this book in various books shops around Bristol and Bath and being a penguin publication the print, pages and binding were superior. I then noticed that it was originally published in 1947 and had just been republished here in the UK, the subject matter intrigued me as did the author Hans Fallada. When we consider stories set during WW2 very few are written from the German point of view and naturally we are inclined to believe that most Germans/Berliners were happy to support Hitler as he appeared to have put their country on a sound economic footing following the very lean years after the 1st WW. Alone in Berlin looks at one mans extroadinary and single handed stand against the forces of Nazism. Berlin at this time was a city of treachery, intrigue, deceipt and suspicion, citizens were encouraged to report on any unnatural activities that might undermine the word of the furher. Into all of this steps Otto, an ordinary German living in an apartment block in Berlin, when he receives a message that his only son has been killed fighting at the front. He's shocked and saddened, and decides to carry out an extroadinary act of resistance. He begins to drop anonymous postcards attacking Hitler across the city knowing that if he is caught or betrayed not only will he be tortured and killed but so will members of his immediate family. There evolves a silent war between Otto and and an ambitious Gestapo Inspector called Escherich. The prose the use of dialogue the sense of atmosphere and the enevitable sad conclusion all come together to make this a fantastic and emotional read, a read that never loses pace or sense of direction, and a read that I would certainly recommend as one of the memorable and intelligent novels of 2010.
 rather depressing August 31, 2010
dc
this story, based apparently on a true tale, is filled out to give a good representation of what it might have been like living in a working class part of Berlin in the Nazi time. But overall it leaves one feeling depressed that even slight resistance was doomed to failure
No happy endings August 31, 2010
etminx
From the very beginning when the Quangels receive the news of the death of their only son, you just know that is a story which is going to end badly. There is little hope in war-time Berlin, most characters expressing any humanity or compassion come to sticky ends (the exception is the post-mistress Eva Kluge who does manage to survive the war and the Nazis). Even the 'bad' characters such as Inspector Escherich are not exempt from the atmosphere of prevailing misery and it was, for me, a miserable and depressing read. Strangely, once I had finished the book, I felt virtuous, like I had survived the book and, for me, this is not a positive.
Outstanding novel August 28, 2010
D. Evans (Southport)
A welcome addition to the penguin bookrange that has also proved a huge seller. This outstanding novel looks at the nazi regime in Berlin in 1940 from the perspective of the citizens. A man who in his own way decides to fight back against the regime. The novel also looks at issues such as who can you really trust.
A Strrage Time of Silence and Threat August 22, 2010
Margaret
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The atmosphere of wartime Berlin is well transmitted in this original and unexpected novel by someone who was there and experienced it. They know the Jews have disappeared, nobody knows where or asks any questions. There is nobody to trust, all are possible informers, and the regime is brutal in the extreme. I was shocked by how brutal it was, and the author had reason to know what he was writing about. Anyone interested in the second world war would be enlightened by this novel, which casts light on aspects of human survival. Everybody who was not in the Party was alone in Berlin, and there was a large question mark over the likelihood that they would survive. Many did not.
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