Inspired by a true story, Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin is the gripping tale of an ordinary man's determination to defy the tyranny of Nazi rule. This Penguin Classics edition contains an afterword by Geoff Wilkes, as well as facsimiles of the original Gestapo file which inspired the novel.Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: the bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and the unassuming couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels receive the news that their beloved son has been killed fighting in France.
Shocked out of their quiet existence, they begin a silent campaign of defiance, and a deadly game of cat and mouse develops between the Quangels and the ambitious Gestapo inspector Escherich. When petty criminals Kluge and Borkhausen also become involved, deception, betrayal and murder ensue, tightening the noose around the Quangels' necks ...
When it was first decided that the next Book Club read would be Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada, I'd had it in my head that this was a contemporary historical novel. I remember seeing posters for it on the tube back in 2009 when it was published and thinking it looked my kind of read. Turns out it was re-released in English in 2009 but it was actually written yonks ago in 1947. This knowledge completely blew my mind and completely changed my entire approach to the book - in front of me now lay a secret, controversial, brave almost-diary of wartime Berlin.
As I've bored you with a number of times, some of my favourite books are what I would call 'mosaic literature' (see, not just Derrida that can make up words to suit his argument...) where you get several snapshots into different lives and worlds. Some of those worlds may overlap, some may not, but you end up with an epic picture of society and the different outlooks/reactions to a particular time or event. This book definitely subscribes to my new genre but of course that doesn't mean it was successful. Only it 100% was successful. Easily one of the best books I've read this year so far, if not the best.
Fallada achieves so much in this novel. But for me his biggest achievement is the way the fear that permeates the entire book feels so immediate, in all its guises. With all the destructiveness and loneliness caused by fear and all our retrospective knowledge of this time in history, it would be easy to read the entire novel and feel completely depressed. Surprisingly, though, it is this 'fear' and people's ability to fight against it, learn from it, is somehow uplifting. That's not to say this is a comedy. Please don't accuse me of saying that... I've made a similar mistake before... I recommended The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and subsequently had a balling woman in front of me, outraged that I would describe it as a children's book...
Anyway, another achievement for Fallada is that his characters are so wonderfully drawn; they aren't black and white, good or bad - they are all completely human and are all subject to the same flaws, same fears as any one else. As a result, Fallada has done one of those rare things by creating a network of characters, none of which do you particularly love, but who are all so strong that you can't help but be drawn in by them. Even the most irritating, weak or depraved characters like serial-adulterer and gambler Enno Kluge or members of the Gestapo stir something.
For me, though, it's not just the story itself and Fallada's writing that makes this book a modern classic, as Penguin has credited it. It is the whole background: the historical backdrop, obviously; the fact the novel is based based on a true case (and I'd recommend not Wikipedia-ing the story until you've read the novel...); but also Fallada himself, as a man, as a writer. His personal story is both disturbing and fascinating and gives you an idea of just where this story has come out of.
I could keep going on about this book, it's good points and bad - there are just so many things (characters, events, the writing, the ending... the list goes on) that I could talk about but I shall leave this review here and just say, go read it.
Book club gave it an 8/10 - think it might be a record! I give it a 9/10.
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