Hans Fallada emerged as one of 20th-century Germany's most significant literary voices, his work deeply shaped by personal struggles with addiction, societal alienation, and profound life traumas. He possessed a remarkable ability to illuminate the often-overlooked lives of ordinary people, chronicling their battles for survival and their search for meaning amidst challenging circumstances. Fallada's prose is distinguished by its raw honesty, keen social conscience, and an empathetic understanding of his characters' frailties and resilience. Through his unique narrative approach, he offered readers an unvarnished yet compassionate portrayal of the human condition.
Previously unpublished and rewritten stories by the acclaimed mid-century German author Hans Fallada have been uncovered nearly a century after his imprisonment. These newly found works offer fresh insights into his literary genius, showcasing his unique narrative style and themes that resonate with readers today.
Noveller. Tales of low-lifes, grifters and ordinary people trying to make ends meet in pre-war Germany
Available for the first time in English, here is an unforgettable portrayal by a master novelist of the physical and psychological devastation wrought in the homeland by Hitlers war.
I lived the same life as everyone else, the life of ordinary people, the masses. Sitting in a prison cell in the autumn of 1944, the German author Hans Fallada sums up his life under the National Socialist dictatorship, the time of inward emigration .
“I lived the same life as everyone else, the life of ordinary people, the masses.” Sitting in a prison cell in the autumn of 1944, the German author Hans Fallada sums up his life under the National Socialist dictatorship, the time of “inward emigration”. Under conditions of close confinement, in constant fear of discovery, he writes himself free from the nightmare of the Nazi years. He records his thoughts about spying and denunciation, about the threat to his livelihood and his literary work and about the fate of many friends and contemporaries. The confessional mode did not come naturally to Fallada, but in the mental and emotional distress of 1944, self-reflection became a survival strategy. Fallada’s frank and sometimes provocative memoirs were thought for many years to have been lost. They are published here for the first time.
Darkly funny, searingly honest short stories from Hans Fallada, author of bestselling Alone in BerlinIn these stories, criminals lament how hard it is to scrape a living by breaking and entering; families measure their daily struggles in marks and pfennigs; a convict makes a desperate leap from a moving train; a ring - and with it a marriage - is lost in a basket of potatoes.Here, as in his novels, Fallada is by turns tough, darkly funny, streetwise and effortlessly engaging, writing with acute feeling about ordinary lives shaped by forces larger than themselves: addiction, love, money.
Intransigent, deeply conservative coachman Gustav Hackendahl rules his family with an iron rod, but in so doing loses his grip on the children he loves. Meanwhile, the First World War is destroying his career, his country, and his pride in the German people. As Germany and the Hackendahl family unravel, Gustav has to learn to compromise if he is to hold onto anything he holds dear.
From the bestselling author of Alone in Berlin, this acclaimed novel follows a young couple navigating life in 1930s Germany. Lämmchen and 'Boy' fall in love, marry, and start a family in Berlin in 1932, but their lives are overshadowed by the changing political landscape. As they struggle with bullying bosses, unpaid bills, monstrous mothers-in-law, and Nazi streetfighters, they question whether love can sustain them. This work, which established Hans Fallada as a significant writer, portrays one of literature's most touching couples, blending comedy with desperation. Published just before Hitler's rise to power, it hauntingly depicts innocents on the brink of losing everything. Michael Hofmann's brilliant new translation captures the era's austerity and turmoil in Weimar Germany. Critics have praised Fallada's genius, noting the emotional depth and variety in characterization. The narrative resonates with both despair and hope, reflecting the complexities of life during a pivotal moment in history. This novel remains a powerful exploration of ordinary people facing extraordinary challenges.
It is the summer of 1929, and in a small German town, a storm is brewing. Tredup, a shabby reporter working for the Pomeranian Chronicle, leads a precarious existence... until he takes some photographs that offer him a chance to make a fortune. While Tredup contemplates his next move, the town is buzzing. Farmers are plotting their revenge against greedy officials, a mysterious traveling salesman is stirring up trouble, and all the while, the Nazi party grows stronger as the Communists fight them in the street. As the town slowly slips into chaos, Mayor "Fatty" Gareis does everything in his power to seek the easy life. As tensions mount between workers and bosses, town and country, and Left and Right, alliances are broken, bribes are taken, and plots are hatched, until the tension spills over into violence. From the brilliant mind of one of Germany's most celebrated writers, A Small Circus is a genuine and frightening tale of small-town Germany during a time of unrest. It belongs in the collection of every reader who has enjoyed his break-out classics.