About this title: This never-before-translated masterpiece is 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.
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Melville House Pub
Date Published: 2009-03-03
ISBN-13:9781933633633ISBN:1933633638
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9781933633633. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Melville House
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781933633633ISBN:1933633638
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Edition: First edition thus
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Melville House Pub, New York:
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781933633633ISBN:1933633638
Description: A fine book in a fine dust jacket. Primo Levi calls it the best book ever written about the German resistance to the Nazis. Published in 1947 shortly after Fallada's death. read more
Description: Like New. SHIPS FROM GERMANY. NO EXPEDITED SHIPPING! Allow 10-14 business days for delivery. Please always check the language in the product description section. Few left in stock-order soon. Selling online since 1995. Code: L20091122205143I. read more
W.G. Sebald has written at length that German writers, for the most part, simply did not write about the time in Germany at the end of the war and the five or ten years after the war. Similarly, it seems to me that not many have novelized life under the Third Reich. I'm no expert of German lit, so I don't know that for sure, but other than THE TIN DRUM, I can't recall having read a German novel about regular German citizens under Hitler.
The great historian of the Nazis, Ian Kershaw, dislikes comparisons between Stalin and Hitler because the communists, he contends, really were interested in some kind of workable system whereas the Nazis were simply nihilists, and everything was doomed to fail, and fail quickly. This riveting story captures that nihilism perfectly. It's a gripping story of those who resist (though resist in quite small ways). And it reveals that those who don't resist really are just as doomed as those who do resist and are caught.
This book is not flawless, and the translation does strike me as bad, though I can't possibly know that for sure. I did wonder why the verb tense kept switching from past to present. The quality of the publication is kind of shoddy, too: one wonders what the copy editor was drinking. But the story really is terrific."
"I ran across Every Man Dies Alone on a website expressing great joy the tome was to go through an English translation, finally. Intrigued by the premise, I quickly ordered the book by Hans Fallada and dove into it with great enthusiasm. Disappointed I was not. The book exposes the dark side of fear and paranoia Germans lived with during WWII. Much like The Book Thief, we are able to see a psychological side often hidden by propaganda films and history books. Many interesting characters, from corrupt thieves to freedom fighters, help carry the work. The Quangels (main characters) are individual resistance fighters and I felt so much emotion for them: worry, hope, even often questioning their tactics. If anyone believes in the individual spirit and its need to act upon injustice, you will find this book fascinating.
"The greatest book ever written about the German resistance to Nazism? That's what was promised by the book cover, and perhaps too-high expectations led to my overall disappointment with the book.
One of the things that took away from the story for me may have been sloppy translating. Verb tenses shifted sometimes from one sentence to another in ways that were irritating because they were just so darned noticeable. So for me, that took away from the flow of the story.
In a way, the small things that the people did in this novel led to a feeling of hopelessness. The impact was generally not good - for example, one person's attempt to save a Jewish widow led to her ultimate suicide. And in the case of the main characters, the Quangels, their efforts had very little impact despite the great danger they put themselves in. Not only were they ultimately harmed, but so were others whom they cared for because of the others' inadvertent involvement.
But on the other hand, even though the efforts seemed to have no impact at all, or a terribly negative impact (short-term), it's not a book that is totally without hope. A cell-mate of Otto Quangel voiced what I think the author was trying to get across. That is, it doesn't really matter what the results were. Otto and his wife dared to do something when many others refused to. Otto chose to be true to himself. He did not simply cower in fear, hoping that things would change somehow. "It would have been a hundred times better if we'd had someone who could have told us 'such and such is what you have to do' . . . As it was, we acted alone, we were caught alone, and every one of us will have to die alone. But that doesn't mean we ARE alone, Quangel, or that our deaths will be in vain. 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."
Passages like this made the novel worth spending the time to read, but overall, I have a feeling that the best book about German resistance either lies elsewhere or has yet to be written."
"I heard about this book on NPR a while ago and put it on my list to read, then promptly forgot about it. Then I remembered it a few weeks ago and checked it from the library. I was initially disappointed because it was hard to get into; I had to really push myself through the first hundred pages or so. It's long, it was written quickly by a man who was dying from chronic alcohol and drug use, and it's full of very unpleasant things. And yet at the same time it's an incredibly compelling book and I think the story behind the novel is every bit as important as the story within the novel. It takes a lot of work to read this book, but it is work that is well worth it in the end."
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