He writes with the suspense of a John le Carré, except that it's all true. He grips your shoulders and whispers in your ear, "This is how it was. This is what happened."
Hans Fallada's "Every Man Dies Alone" ("Jeder stirbt für sich allein") is so much more than just a book. He lived through the Nazi hell (read the book's "Afterword" and the true story behind the story), and so every word rings true - this is who they really were: the Gestapo monsters, the petty informers, the few who dared to resist.
The characters, the dialogue, the streets, the apartment blocks, the stairwells, the very dust in the air are startlingly real; one reads this book less than one moves through it. Altogether an unforgettable portrait of a middle-aged couple's campaign of civil disobedience against the Nazis.
How do you squeeze a 500-page book into a 100-minute movie? With difficulty, but it's worth watching. Do so before YouTube removes it.
Other books by Hans Fallada available online:
Little Man, What Now? / Hörbuch (in German)
Iron Gustav / Movie (in German)
A Small Circus
The Drinker
Wolf Among Wolves
An Old Heart Goes A-Journeying
... and if you know a little German - click here - you can read these:
Der junge Goedeschal (in German)
Wer einmal aus dem Blechnapf frisst (in German) / Movie (in German)
Länge der Leidenschaft (in German)
(to read any of these books, SING UP - it's free! - LOG IN and BORROW)
