About this Item
First impression of the first UK edition, with the no. "1" as called for on the printer's page. Translated from the original German by Michael Hofmann. The book was first published in English in the USA as "Every Man Dies Alone". Cover photograph: "Berlin 1936" by Wolff & Tritschler and author photograph to inner rear flap showing Hans Fallada playing chess (Ullstein bild/AKG). ***Near fine in black boards with white titles to the spine. The boards are clean and unmarked. Head and tail of spine slightly creased. Small crease to the top edge of the front board. Corners sharp. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Internally also near fine with no inscriptions. Pages clean and bright with no foxing and no creases or tears. ***In a very good monochrome-illustrated dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of £20.00. The dustwrapper is complete without any loss. Extremities of dustwrapper just slightly rubbed and creased. No creases or tears. No fading. Dustwrapper bright. ***240mm x 162mm. 568 pages. ***'Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. In the house at 55 Jablonski Strasse, the various occupants are all trying to live under Nazi rule in their own different ways: the nervous Frau Rosenthal, the bullying Hitler-loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm, and the unassuming working-class couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels receive the devastating news that their beloved son has been killed fighting in France. ***Shocked out of his quiet existence, the usually taciturn factory foreman Otto is provoked into an action that will endanger his life. With his wife's help, he begins to drop hundreds of anonymous postcards attacking Hitler in buildings all over the city. If Otto and Anna are caught, they will be executed for treason. ***As the couple's silent campaign escalates, the cards come to the attention of the ambitious Gestapo inspector Escherich, and a deadly game of cat-and-mouse develops between them. When the petty criminals Kluge and Borkhausen become involved, blackmail, deception, betrayal and murder ensue, gradually tightening the noose around the Quangels' necks.' ***'Hans Fallada's gripping and haunting novel was first published in German in 1947. It is both a dark, fast-paced wartime thriller and a chilling portrayal of a paranoid, brutal society, where the smallest action can have fatal consequences, and love has to survive against the cruellest of odds. Michael Hofmann's powerful new translation brings this extraordinary masterpiece to English readers for the very first time.' ***'The greatest book ever written about the German resistance to the Nazis' - Primo Levi ***'"Alone in Berlin" is one of the most extraordinary and compelling novels ever written about World War II. Ever. Please, do not miss this.' ***'An unrivalled and vivid portrait of life in wartime Berlin.' (Quotes and review quotes taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper) ***'Hans Fallada was one of the best-known German writers of the twentieth century. Born in 1893 in Greifswald, north-east Germany, as Rudolf Wilhelm Adolf Ditzen, he took his pen-name from a Brothers Grimm fairytale. His most famous works include the novels "Little Man, What Now?" and "The Drinker". Fallada died in 1947 in Berlin.' ***'Michael Hofmann is the author of several books of poems, a book of criticism, "Behind the Lines", and the translator of many modern and contemporary authors, including Joseph Roth. (Wiki) ***First impression of the first UK edition, in its original dustwrapper, in very nice, bright condition. Uncommon now in first impression. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.
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