Before WWII , German writer Hans Fallada’s novels were
international bestsellers, on a par with those of his countrymen
Thomas Mann and Herman Hesse. In America, Hollywood even turned his
first big novel, Little Man, What Now? into a major motion
picture.
Learning the movie was made by a Jewish producer, however, Hitler
decreed Fallada’ s work could no longer be sold outside Germany,
and the rising Nazis began to pay him closer attention. When he
refused to join the Nazi party he was arrested by the Gestapo—who
eventually released him, but thereafter regularly summoned him for
“discussions” of his work.
However, unlike Mann, Hesse, and others, Fallada refused to flee to
safety, even when his British publisher, George Putnam, sent a
private boat to rescue him. The pressure took its toll on Fallada,
and he resorted increasingly to drugs and alcohol for relief. After
Goebbels ordered him to write an anti-Semitic novel, he snapped and
found himself imprisoned in an asylum for the “criminally
insane”—considered a death sentence under Nazi rule. To forestall
the inevitable, he pretended to write the assignment for Goebbels,
while actually composing three encrypted books—including his tour
de force novel The Drinker—in such dense code that they were not
deciphered until long after his death.
Fallada outlasted the Reich and was freed at war’s end. But he was
a shattered man. To help him recover by putting him to work,
Fallada’s publisher gave him the Gestapo file of a simple,
working-class couple who had resisted the Nazis. Inspired, Fallada
completed Every Man Dies Alone in just twenty-four days.
He died in February 1947, just weeks before the book’s publication.
“Fallada deserves high praise for having reported so realistically,
so truthfully, with such closeness to life.”
—Herman Hesse
“ Superb.”
—Graham Greene
“In a publishing hat trick, Melville House allows English-language
readers to sample Fallada’s vertiginous variety accompanying the
release of Michael Hoffman’s splendid translation of Every Man Dies
Alone with the simultaneous publication of excellent English
versions of Fallada’s two best-known novels, Little Man, What Now?
(translated by Susan Bennett) and The Drinker (translated by
Charlotte and A.L. Lloyd). In his probing afterword to Little Man,
What Now?, Philip Brady ponders the question of why the book isn't
better-known today: ‘Enduring success is one thing, immediate
impact is something different, and clearly the immediate impact of
Fallada’s novel was undeniable.’ Given our current economic
circumstances, the book may have a second chance at impact and
endurance.”
—New York Times Book Review
"Fallada deserves high praise for having reported so realistically,
so truthfully, with such closeness to life."
-Herman Hesse
" Superb."
-Graham Greene
"In a publishing hat trick, Melville House allows English-language
readers to sample Fallada's vertiginous variety accompanying the
release of Michael Hoffman's splendid translation of Every Man
Dies Alone with the simultaneous publication of excellent
English versions of Fallada's two best-known novels, Little Man,
What Now? (translated by Susan Bennett) and The Drinker
(translated by Charlotte and A.L. Lloyd). In his probing afterword
to Little Man, What Now?, Philip Brady ponders the question
of why the book isn't better-known today: 'Enduring success is one
thing, immediate impact is something different, and clearly the
immediate impact of Fallada's novel was undeniable.' Given our
current economic circumstances, the book may have a second chance
at impact and endurance."
-New York Times Book Review
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