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Almost 100 years after Hans Fallada committed himself to prison, previously unpublished and rewritten stories by the bestselling mid-century German author have been discovered.
It was the turning point before he became a bestselling author: Hans Fallada handed himself in to the police in September 1925, following repeated cases of embezzlement to finance his alcohol and morphine addiction.
At the time, a court-appointed doctor was assigned to assess the extent to which Fallada could be made accountable. This expert opinion, thought to have been lost, was only recently rediscovered. It is an extraordinary find, because it includes unpublished and rewritten stories by Fallada that reveal his early, unparalleled insight into the female psyche, and that focus on hitherto taboo topics such as rape and abortion.
The title character, Lilly, is a young, untamed, headstrong girl. She sets out to “play” with a young man, but ends up losing control of the situation. Barely able to hide her questionable actions, she ends up in a sanatorium, where she engages in a bizarre duel of reciprocal manipulation with another patient. In the end, it is impossible to tell who is victorious.
Marie and Thilde, the protagonists of two other stories, are strong women who rebel against the pre-established patterns imposed on them by society, while two male outsiders, Pogg and Robinson, seek refuge and hope in a prison cell.
These stories—written while the author was relishing the opportunity in prison to free himself of his addictions—reveal to a new generation of readers Fallada’s immense gifts and his intense battles with the dynamics of human relationships.
“Fallada is extraordinary … These stories of love and hate, sadism and masochism, are compelling in isolation. But what makes them remarkable is that they prefigure his final works.”
—Geordie Williamson, The Saturday Paper
“A precious treat for Fallada fans: Lilly and Her Slave tells a MeToo story from 1920s Berlin.”
—Marc Reichwein, Literarische Welt
“These tales from the estate of Hans Fallada are a gem for fans, as are the circumstances of their discovery.”
—Welt am Sonntag
Praise for Hans Fallada:
“Fallada deserves high praise for having reported so realistically, so truthfully, with such closeness to life.”
—Herman Hesse
“I very much enjoyed the rediscovery of Hans Fallada … a wonderful novel. Compelling.”
—Ian McEwan
Praise for Nightmare in Berlin:
“Here was a writer whose courage was to stay behind and turn his suffering and the suffering of others into extraordinary literature.”
—Financial Times
“Fallada describes Berlin as an almost post-apocalyptic city dominated by death, drugs, apathy, and the almost blackly comic pettiness of the human survival instinct. This translation of this compelling novel enables a new audience to experience Fallada’s fascinating and conflicted perspective.”
—Booklist
“This is a tense, atmospheric, almost dreamlike novel, shifting between moods of despair and hope. It is rich in internal stories … bold, strident, ironic, and often ambivalent fiction.”
—Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times
Praise for Every Man Dies Alone:
“The greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis.”
—Primo Levi
“Has something of the horror of Conrad, the madness of Dostoyevsky, and the chilling menace of Capote.”
—The New York Times
“[Every Man Dies Alone] has the suspense of a John le Carré novel, and offers a visceral, chilling portrait of the distrust that permeated everyday German life during the war.”
—The New Yorker
“[A]t once a riveting page turner and a memorable portrait of wartime Berlin.”
—John Powers for Fresh Air / NPR Books We Like