Alone in Berlin

First published in Germany in 1947 and evoking the horror of life in Germany in the Second World War. A rediscovered masterpiece that makes you want to seek out more works by this great chronicler of events in my own lifetime.
Barry Humphries, Books of the Year, Sunday Telegraph
The other fictional high point of 2009 was Alone in Berlin ... 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, Books of the Year, Sunday Telegraph
[This novel] suggests that resistance to evil is rarely straightforward, mostly futile, and generally doomed. Yet to the novel's aching, unanswered question: 'Does it matter?' there is in this strange and compelling story to be found a reply in the affirmative. Primo Levi had it right: This is the great novel of German resistance.
Richard Flanagan


One of the most extraordinary and compelling novels written about World War II. Ever.
Alan Furst
Terrific ... a fast-moving, important and astutely deadpan thriller.
Irish Times
A classic study of a paranoid society. Fallada's scope is extraordinary. Alone in Berlin is ... as morally powerful as anything I've ever read.
Charlotte Moore, Telegraph
The greatest book ever written about the German resistance to the Nazis.
Primo Levi
Fallada assembles a cast of vivid low-life characters, stoolies, thieves and whores
James Buchan, Guardian
Visceral, chilling ... has the suspense of a Le Carré novel
New Yorker
A classic study of a paranoid society. Fallada's scope is extraordinary. Alone in Berlin is ... as morally powerful as anything I've ever read
Charlotte Moore, Telegraph