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 di...
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Aug 11, 2011
brian
rated it: 
after losing their son to the war, berlin residents otta and anna quangel launch a mini-revolt against the reich and fuhrer in the form of postcards around the city which speak subversive messages directly to the people. read in the age of twitter and viral videos, this seems, at once, awfully quaint and particularly profound. there was a time, i gather, when words mattered; when there didn't exist a barrage of partisan wingnuts flooding the zeitgeist with nonsense. but lemme skip the cranky old
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Sep 19, 2011
Praj
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I should express thanks to Gudrun Burwitz, for if it was not for her ruthless news, I would not have found a brilliant book that stands for every belief which Ms. Burwitz expels from her very survival. Couple weeks ago, a news article describing Burwitz as the new “Nazi grandmother” made me explore further for its validity. Ms. Burwitz who at the ripe age of 81, still strives hard to support and nurture the most modern breed of Nazis ,keeping alive the malicious work and memory of her father H
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(10 people liked it)
Dec 08, 2010
Whitaker
rated it: 
I read this while I was also reading Robert Fisk's The Great War for Civilisation The Conquest of the Middle East. Bad idea. Very bad idea. Note to self: Reading two depressing books at the same time does not do good things to one's mood.
There has been a surge of interest in the German experience of World War II, particularly the experience of those who tried to resist the war mongering. This novel joins works like The Song Before It Is Sung A Novel, Valkyrie The Plot To Kill Hitler More...
There has been a surge of interest in the German experience of World War II, particularly the experience of those who tried to resist the war mongering. This novel joins works like The Song Before It Is Sung A Novel, Valkyrie The Plot To Kill Hitler More...
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(7 people liked it)
Jan 18, 2012
Elijah
rated it: 
Well holy fuck that was one of the best books I've ever read.
When I started Every Man Dies Alone, I had two fears: one, that it would be too dark and do too good a job of taking a depressing look at how terrible humans can be, and I wouldn't want to keep reading it; or two, that it would show the main characters' personal rebellion -- a series of postcards with anti-Nazi slogans dropped around Berlin -- as a regime-changing act of genius that would change minds throughout Germany. I More...
When I started Every Man Dies Alone, I had two fears: one, that it would be too dark and do too good a job of taking a depressing look at how terrible humans can be, and I wouldn't want to keep reading it; or two, that it would show the main characters' personal rebellion -- a series of postcards with anti-Nazi slogans dropped around Berlin -- as a regime-changing act of genius that would change minds throughout Germany. I More...
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(4 people liked it)
Jun 27, 2010
kit
rated it:
A wonderful, absorbing book detailing the small, personal rebellions and resistances against Nazi Germany by a handful of its citizens, at the forefront Otto Quangel and his wife Anna. One of the reasons I enjoyed Alone in Berlin is that Fallada does not attempt to elevate the Quangels' resistance to an importance it does not deserve - while Otto is hopeful that his postcards are having an effect, it is later revealed his efforts have been largely futile. In this way, the novel is largely unforg
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Mar 16, 2011
Sophie
rated it:
A really powerful novel set in Berlin during the Third Reich, based on a true story. It's the story of an elderly couple who, after the death of their son, realize the true horror and wrongness of the Nazi regime, and as a consequence they become resistance fighters. Their resistance is a small one; there are no planned assassinations or big events. Rather, they write postcards that detail the wrongs of the regime, in order to make other people realize that what is going on is wrong. They leave
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(4 people liked it)
Aug 27, 2011
Cara
rated it:
If I could have given this six stars, I would have.
Maybe it was because I read it in a day, or maybe because it was based on a true story, I know I will not forget this book for a long time.
Much WW2 literature is written from the view point of the English during the blitz, the French heading up the Resistence or the Nazi's wreaking evil. I think there is only Alone in Berlin and The Book Thief that I have read, which has given an insight into the dire situation that the ordi More...
Maybe it was because I read it in a day, or maybe because it was based on a true story, I know I will not forget this book for a long time.
Much WW2 literature is written from the view point of the English during the blitz, the French heading up the Resistence or the Nazi's wreaking evil. I think there is only Alone in Berlin and The Book Thief that I have read, which has given an insight into the dire situation that the ordi More...
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(3 people liked it)
Feb 09, 2009
John
rated it:
An amazing novel about ordinary folks doing the small things they can to resist the Nazis in the late 30s in Berlin. The characters are fantastic and the book is steeped in the atmosphere of the opression and deceit that surrounded them.
It's based on an actual SS file that was handed to the author after he was finally released from a Nazi insame asylum at the end of the war. He wrote this impressive, complex novel in 24 DAYS and died immediately afterwards.
It's an importa More...
It's based on an actual SS file that was handed to the author after he was finally released from a Nazi insame asylum at the end of the war. He wrote this impressive, complex novel in 24 DAYS and died immediately afterwards.
It's an importa More...
Jan 13, 2011
Mrgmmk
rated it:
Fantastic book, loosely based on a true story in Berlin during WW2. A middle-aged,working class couple lose their only son in the war in France and decide to wage their own war on the Reich.
Beautifully written characters, some (very dark) comedy and a sense of the horror living through those years. It's very unusual to read a book from this perspective, it's written from inside a hidden world (to us) and instead of the sometimes caricature portrayls of nazi germany you hear the voic More...
Beautifully written characters, some (very dark) comedy and a sense of the horror living through those years. It's very unusual to read a book from this perspective, it's written from inside a hidden world (to us) and instead of the sometimes caricature portrayls of nazi germany you hear the voic More...
Mar 14, 2009
Michael
rated it:
Hans Fallada is the pen name of German writer Rudolf Ditzen. Starting his writing career in the 1920s, Fallada continued to write through the fall of the Weimar Republic, the Great Depression, and the rise of the Nazi Party to its rule of Germany. He stayed in Germany after the Nazis took power and managed to survive the war becoming an author of some note in Soviet-occupied Germany after the war.
Every Man Dies Alone looks at one couple's small act of resistance to the Nazis during More...
Every Man Dies Alone looks at one couple's small act of resistance to the Nazis during More...
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(11 people liked it)
Dec 05, 2011
Michael
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Every Man Dies Alone is a literary thriller based on an actual Gestapo case file about a German couple who secretly distributed anti-Nazi propaganda in Berlin during World War II, an act of resistance punishable by death.
Noir-like scenes from the novel include Anna Quangel waiting anxiously in the street while her husband Otto slips into a crowded Berlin office building to leave a postcard denouncing Hitler, and Gestapo Inspector Escherich escorting an informant to the city outskirts a More...
Noir-like scenes from the novel include Anna Quangel waiting anxiously in the street while her husband Otto slips into a crowded Berlin office building to leave a postcard denouncing Hitler, and Gestapo Inspector Escherich escorting an informant to the city outskirts a More...
Oct 20, 2011
Michael
rated it:
This book is possibly the most realistic portrayal available of what life was like for non-Jewish, working class Germans in the Third Reich. (Of course, it was much worse if you were Jewish.) There was absolutely no freedom of speech. Saying something as innocent as, "Hitler was sure stupid for doing that, wasn't he?" could land you in a concentration camp for treason! This realization and similar discoveries kind of blew me away. You could clearly see how in a situation like this t
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Oct 10, 2011
joolz
rated it:
The book is worth 4* but loses a star because of the jarring translation. Many words feel inconsistent with the era, some idioms have been translated literally and other words/expressions seem far too modern. No idea why they felt the need to change the title either, the original one was more appropriate - 'Jeder stirbt für sich allein' literally 'Everyone Dies For Themselves Alone' and even the US title (Every Man Dies Alone) is better than the UK title which doesn't seem appropriate. Otto &
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(2 people liked it)
Oct 03, 2011
Sheri
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Fallada (a pseudonym) wrote this novel at the end of 1946, not long after the end of WWII in Germany. It's based in significant part on a true story of an older married German couple who decide during the war that they oppose Hitler & Naziism. To avoid being complicit in the evils taking place, they embark on a plan to write & then drop off secretly in public places postcards that revile Hitler and his policies. Rather than give away what happens next, I'll let you decide whether to read this
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Sep 28, 2011
Sam
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Otto and Anna Quangel, two mild-mannered Germans in Nazi Germany, decide to protest the Nazi's by surreptitiously placing postcards around Berlin. They hope to reach other people who disagree with the Nazi's and somehow lead to a general awakening of protest. The fear being sent to the concentration camps, or worse. Of course, the protest is completely ineffective.
The book is moving and compelling. Its main strength is portrayal of the quiet desperation of people who have lost thei More...
The book is moving and compelling. Its main strength is portrayal of the quiet desperation of people who have lost thei More...
Sep 22, 2011
Anita
rated it:
This book is gripping! Here's the recommendation from my Colorado Springs Gazette book column:
For the last few weeks, a 532-page book has been my regular companion. The book has accompanied me to the gym and swimming pool, and to my children’s tee-ball practices and dance lessons. At times, the book’s bulk made it a labor, but every time I opened it, I remembered its worth.
“Every Man Dies Alone” was written in 1946 by German writer Hans Fallada. Fallada, a morphine addict More...
For the last few weeks, a 532-page book has been my regular companion. The book has accompanied me to the gym and swimming pool, and to my children’s tee-ball practices and dance lessons. At times, the book’s bulk made it a labor, but every time I opened it, I remembered its worth.
“Every Man Dies Alone” was written in 1946 by German writer Hans Fallada. Fallada, a morphine addict More...
Aug 09, 2011
Martin
rated it:
eine ebenso spannende wie historisch interessante lektüre. wenn die new york times von einer literarischen sensation spricht, darf man mit blick auf dieses buch jetzt natürlich nicht döblin, musil, thomas mann oder andere "große literatur" (was immer man unter einem zweifelhaften label wie diesem eigentlich genau verstehen mag)der zeit erwarten. fallada war ein trivialautor, ein bestsellerautor seiner zeit. die sensation besteht vielmehr in der (wieder)entdeckung dieses 1947 veröffentl
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Jul 29, 2011
This is the best book that i have read in a long long time--I do not know why it was not one of the best books on the NYT 2009 list--it is powerful, moving, haunting, and somehow it manages to be hopeful when all is said and done. The setting is Berlin in 1940 onward to the end of the war--the impetus for the book was a couple who risked everything to spread their message that the Nazi's were vile, which is a difficult thing to do in a totalitarian state, but they had an almost obsessive need t
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Jul 19, 2011
Terry
rated it:
You can tell by the title, "Every Man Dies Alone" (1947) that this is not a lighthearted farce and boy, it is not! It's about German resisters to Nazis during WWII. I expected heroics, perhaps a bit like "Inglourious Basterds," but "Every Man Dies Alone" is about a very different sort of heroics. The resisters in this novel are ordinary citizens, not elites; they're minor actors taking completely ineffectual actions. It may be heroism, but no one notices but th
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Jul 05, 2011
EmmaMarie
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jun 01, 2011
Andrea
rated it:
I discovered Hans Fallada last month by accident when I was shelving books in a library. Every Man Dies Alone was horrifying to read, with its vivid description of the lives of some people living in a Nazi Germany apartment building, but it is one of the most valuable books I've ever read. It described "ordinary" life during a historical period in ways that only a novel can do. The novel conveyed the environment in which people either reported on other people or feared being reported o
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Apr 13, 2011
David
rated it:
I knew nothing about Hans Fallada's work; downloaded 'Alone in Berlin' onto my Kindle simply because it came up on my Recommendations and the blurb looked interesting. It was a great decision, and I hope I can add my little bit to encouraging others to read this harrowing but absorbing and grittily realistic novel of wartime Germany.
The book was originally published in 1947, not long after the events it describes and shortly before the author's death, but very surprisingly was not tran More...
The book was originally published in 1947, not long after the events it describes and shortly before the author's death, but very surprisingly was not tran More...
Feb 22, 2011
Jane
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jan 24, 2011
Mark
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After having started 2011 with a couple of disappointing novels this one blew me away. Written in 1947 but set in the middle years of the war it follows a number of different characters ranging from the noble and kind through the naive and tragic to the utterly loathsome making a few stops at the fairly disgusting. All emotions are here and this reader certainly experienced quite a few of them himself. The hero and heroine,(Fallada speaks of people in their fifties or even late forties as being
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(2 people liked it)
Jan 23, 2011
Denis
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Published in English under the title Every Man Dies Alone (which is closer to the original title, and quite resonant), this incredibly powerful and heartbreaking novel is one of the true unsung masterpieces of the last century, and deserves the recognition it is, at last, starting to get since it has been rediscovered and republished. Rarely has a novel showed the reality of life under the Nazis with such realism, emotion, force, and, yes, even sometimes humor. It is a shattering read - and, in
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(2 people liked it)
Jan 06, 2011
Raquel
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This was a powerful book, based on a true story. It's written in an almost detached rhythm, and it can be plodding, and its characters aren't the most sympathetic people. Yet it is a book fraught with tension and horror and suspense and becomes too engrossing to put down--a book about a microcosm of German society that in its ordinariness could easily be your or my own reality, which makes it all the more terrifying. Someone called it "the single greatest book ever written about the German
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Dec 17, 2010
Al
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This book is almost impossible to describe without creating the wrong impression. I found it unputdownable: nervewrackingly tense, impressively evocative of a situation in which people are caught in terrifying webs of intrigue, deceit, bullying, fear, terror... On a certain level, the novel is despairing and immensely sad; yet the overriding impression is one of great inspiration and courage. On another level this is almost an anti-novel: no real plot; no heroes; no 'winning out' over advers
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Dec 13, 2010
Holly
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This book was originally published in Germany in 1947, but not translated into English until 2009. The story is life in Berlin under the Nazis...those who uphold the Nazi regime and those who try resist it. It's mostly a story of what could be called relatively insignificant players in the Berlin at that time but the richness of the characters and their descriptions, the detailed explanations of how time is spent and words are examined, all contribute to an almost intimate view of what life wa
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 22, 2010
Calvin
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Nov 02, 2010
Rachel
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To read more reviews check out Reading Rendezvous at: www.missomnimedia.com/tag/reading-rendez...
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.”
Okay Ladies, I am writing about a novel that was originally introduced to me via a friend who knew I had a huge interest in the topic. Every Man Dies Alone is a classic story of rebellion during World War II. Originally published in 194 More...
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.”
Okay Ladies, I am writing about a novel that was originally introduced to me via a friend who knew I had a huge interest in the topic. Every Man Dies Alone is a classic story of rebellion during World War II. Originally published in 194 More...
