Hans Fallada
AUTHOR

Hans Fallada

Literature & Fiction | Children's Audiobooks
Tap the gear icon above to manage new release emails.
Before WWII, German writer Hans Fallada's novels were international bestsellers, on a par with those of his countrymen Thoman 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, the Nazis blocked Fallada's work from foreign rights sales, and 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. Not long 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.
Read more Read less

Try Audible membership today. Start enjoying the benefits.

Try Audible for free with an audiobook of your choice.
Try Premium Plus free
Automatically renews at AUD $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Most Popular

Product list
  • Alone in Berlin cover art

    Non-member price: $33.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $33.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Kleiner Mann - was nun? cover art

    Non-member price: $6.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $6.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Nightmare in Berlin cover art

    Non-member price: $27.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $27.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Jeder stirbt für sich allein cover art

    Non-member price: $19.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $19.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Solo en Berlín cover art

    Non-member price: $39.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $39.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Der Trinker cover art

    Non-member price: $13.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $13.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Geschichten cover art

    Non-member price: $6.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $6.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Warnung vor Büchern cover art

    Non-member price: $13.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $13.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Hoppelpoppel, wo bist du cover art

    Non-member price: $10.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $10.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Der eiserne Gustav cover art

    Non-member price: $10.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $10.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Geschichten aus der Murkelei cover art

    Non-member price: $13.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $13.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Kleiner Mann - was nun? cover art

    Non-member price: $10.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $10.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Damals bei uns daheim cover art

    Non-member price: $10.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $10.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Geschichten aus der Murkelei cover art

    Non-member price: $15.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $15.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Junge Liebe zwischen Trümmern cover art

    Non-member price: $16.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $16.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben cover art

    Non-member price: $15.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $15.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Kleiner Mann - was nun? cover art

    Non-member price: $28.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $28.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Wer einmal aus dem Blechnapf frißt / Die Quangels cover art

    Non-member price: $12.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $12.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Der Alpdruck cover art

    Non-member price: $15.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $15.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00
  • Christkind verkehrt cover art

    Non-member price: $9.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: $9.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for $0.00