Alone in Berlin
By Hans Fallada
Why this book?
Alone in Berlin, is inspired by a true story and set in 1940 Berlin. The book was written in 1946 (but not published in English until 2009) and is a brilliant depiction of a lowly, working-class couple’s dangerous attempt at resistance to Hitler’s regime. It is not only a grippingly written thriller which shows unflinchingly the excruciating level of violence and fear under which the population lived, but the book continuously poses questions of morality. The couple’s resistance to the seemingly all-powerful Nazi war machine at times seems infantile and futile, but they keep going, not knowing if the danger they are facing is having any effect at all. It forces the reader to question, all the way through, what would I have done, in their shoes?
When you buy a book we may earn a small commission.