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Fiction.
Romance.
Thriller.
Historical Fiction.
HTML:This never-before-translated masterpieceby a heroic best-selling writer who saw his life crumble when he wouldn't join the Nazi Partyis based on a true story. It presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping saga of one working-class couple who decides 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, they 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, it's more than an edge-of-your-seat thriller, more than a moving romance, even more than literature of the highest orderit's a deeply stirring story of two people standing up for what's right, and for each other.… (more)
chrisharpe: Both are books about individuals under repressive regimes, set during WWII, by authors who lived through the circumstances they write about. Although both works are "fiction", the authority of each writer is plainly stamped on each novel. The subject matter may be grim, and the detail uncompromising, but the characters' humanity shines through to make these uplifting reads.… (more)
BookshelfMonstrosity: If you found In the Garden of Beasts moving and want to read fiction about the Third Reich, try Every Man Dies Alone, a haunting novel based on actual events surrounding a couple that attempted to undermine the Nazi regime.
My second Fallada and it's brilliant in every way. The writing/translation is crisp, the characterisations realistic, and the storyline itself astoundingly simple and compelling.
The way the lives intertwine in such a simple way and unravels so naturally can be fully attributed to how well Fallada motivated each character. He wound them up so effectively at the beginning, imbued them with their personalities and flaws, before releasing them on their often-crisscrossing paths across the city over the years.
The aptly-placed afterword only served to elevate my admiration for this book and the author's abilities. The afterword could potentially serve as a novella itself, the way it made me gasp out loud and also reevaluate the entire story I had just read. ( )
We all know about the autocracies committed by Hitler and the Nazi Party. But have you ever wondered why the German people not only accepted, but openly embraced the madness of Hitler and his henchmen. This novel explains goes a long way in explaining this disturbing phenomena. The novel is based on the true story of a humble German couple, who at great risk to themselves, distributed hundreds of pamphlets denouncing Hitler and The Nazi Party. The Gestapo was under the belief that the distribution of these pamphlets was the undertaking of a very large and well organized resistance force. Sadly, this was not the case. Just one nobel man, and one very brave woman were behind it all. Because, the sad fact is that driven by fear and paranoia, not only Hitler and The Nazi Party, but of their fellow Germans as well; the vast majority of German citizens succumbed to their basic human survival instincts and did whatever they had to survive. No matter what horrible things they had to do, or agree to, they did so in order to survive. ( )
Extraordinary story, based on real life, of a couple who circulate hand-written anti-Hitler postcards in Berlin. Eventually they are caught. Have they influenced anybody, since most were handed over immediately to the police? Or is it sufficient that they did what was right even though it would have little effect?
This book is gold. Historically authentic (the author lived in Berlin in the 30s and 40s), brilliantly and movingly written, suspensefully plotted, rich in social satire and desperate struggle of all kinds, from the petty to the heroic, in the face of the evil-saturated Third Reich, this book has it all. Hard to imagine how this author isn't much better known. Very highly recommended. ( )
Every Man Dies Alone is a good book, a readable, suspense-driven novel from an author who a) knew what he was doing when it came to writing commercial fiction, and b) had lived through, and so knew intimately, the period he was writing about. This is an extraordinary combination. I hesitate to use a word like "serendipity," but cruelly enough, that's exactly what it was.
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 into your ear: “This is how it was. This is what happened.”
The postwoman Eva Kluge slowly climbs the steps of 55 Jablonski Strasse.
Quotations
He might be right: whether their act was big or small, no one could risk more than his life. Each according to his strength and abilities, but the main thing was, you fought back.
"What did you expect anyway, Quangel? You, an ordinary worker, taking on the Fuhrer, who is backed by the Party, the Wehrmacht, the SS, the SA?...It's ludicrous! You must have known you had no chance! It's a gnat against an elephant. I don't understand it, a sensible man like you!"
"No, and you will never understand it, either. It doesn't matter it one man fights or ten thousand; if the one man sees he has no option but to fight, then he will fight, whether he has others on his side or not. I had to fight, and given the chance I would do it again. Only I would do it very differently."
"Who can say? At least you opposed evil. You weren't corrupted..."
"Yes, and then they kill us, and what good did our resistance do?"
"Well, it will have helped us to feel that we behaved decently till the end... As it was, we all acted alone, we were caught alone, and every one of us will have to die alone. But that doesn't mean that we are alone, Quangel, or that our death will be in vain..." (Dr. Reichhardt, p.434)
Much of the money was siphoned off by the Party, and scholars have noted that it kept the populace short of extra cash and acclimated to the idea of privation. (Footnote, p. 24)
Even the worst Party member was worth more to them than the best ordinary citizen. Once in the Party, it appeared you could do what you liked, and never be called for it. They termed that rewarding loyalty with loyalty. (p. 24)
"And what will we do with our wealth? Eat it? Do I sleep better if I am rich? If I stop going to the factory because of being such a rich man, what will I do all day?" (Otto Quangel, p. 26)
"We've done nothing to hurt anyone, they won't do anything to us." (Frau Rosenthal, p. 122)
Each according to his strength and abilities, but the main thing was, you fought back. (p. 136)
"The whole nation has become a nation of madmen; I think it's a contagion." (Max Harteisen, p. 155)
"If everyone thought like that, then Hitler would stay in power for ever. Someone somewhere has to make a start." (Trudel, p. 397)
...they were one brood that would have to be wiped off the face of the earth so that sensible people could live. (p. 409)
"Nothing in this world is done in vain, and since we are fighting for justice against brutality, we are bound to prevail in the end." (Dr. Reichhardt, p. 434)
"Would you rather live for an unjust cause than die for a just one?" (Dr. Reichhardt, p. 434)
The Third Reich kept springing new surprises on its antagonists; it was vile beyond all vileness. (p. 455)
The judge had assumed the duties of the prosecution from the first minute; from the first minute, Feisler had violated the basic duty of any judge, which is to establish the truth. He had been utterly partisan. (p. 459)
The preposterous comedy of this gang of criminals branding everyone else as criminals was suddenly too much for him to take. (p. 472)
Last words
Because it is written that you reap what you sow, and the boy had sown good corn.
Fiction.
Romance.
Thriller.
Historical Fiction.
HTML:This never-before-translated masterpieceby a heroic best-selling writer who saw his life crumble when he wouldn't join the Nazi Partyis based on a true story. It presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping saga of one working-class couple who decides 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, they 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, it's more than an edge-of-your-seat thriller, more than a moving romance, even more than literature of the highest orderit's a deeply stirring story of two people standing up for what's right, and for each other.
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Book description
"Il libro più importante che sia mai stato scritto sulla resistenza tedesca al nazismo" (Primo Levi). "Ognuno muore solo" (uscito nel 1947) è una rielaborazione letteraria dell'inchiesta della Gestapo che portò alla decapitazione due coniugi berlinesi di mezz'età. Una spietata caccia all'uomo, con tanto di bandierine sulle carte, guidata da investigatori tanto tecnicamente capaci quanto irrazionalmente mossi da un fanatismo assurdamente sproporzionato agli scopi. E probabilmente le ragioni dell'oblio e della riscoperta stanno appunto nel fatto che è un romanzo sulla resistenza. Un romanzo sulla resistenza e sulla disperazione. Contrastante, quindi, con il luogo comune di un Hitler che non conobbe oppositori tra la gente ordinaria, unita nella colpa collettiva. Fallada racconta di poveri eroi. Anna e Otto Quangel, lui caporeparto lei casalinga, come tutti i loro pari soli e addormentati e poco prima ancora abbagliati dal Fiihrer, conoscono un risveglio dopo la notizia della morte del figlio al fronte, e cominciano a riempire alcuni caseggiati della loro Berlino con cartoline vergate in modo incerto di appelli ingenui di ribellione. Lo fanno per comportarsi con decenza fino alla fine, ben sapendo che morranno e sicuri che nel vicino incontreranno più facilmente il delatore. L'autore li illumina, scorgendo in loro una specie di coscienza della nazione, rappresentata dai tanti volti intorno, espressioni di un popolo spaccato in due, chi opprime e chi è sepolto nella sua paura.
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7
The way the lives intertwine in such a simple way and unravels so naturally can be fully attributed to how well Fallada motivated each character. He wound them up so effectively at the beginning, imbued them with their personalities and flaws, before releasing them on their often-crisscrossing paths across the city over the years.
The aptly-placed afterword only served to elevate my admiration for this book and the author's abilities. The afterword could potentially serve as a novella itself, the way it made me gasp out loud and also reevaluate the entire story I had just read. (