Nightmare in Berlin

Hans Fallada’s penultimate book, Nightmare in Berlin, is more of an autobiography of his last two years than a novel. Like his protagonist Doll, Fallada was appointed mayor of a small country town by the Russians in the wake of Germany’s defeat in World War II; he married a woman much younger than h......more

26 Απριλίου 1945 Ο συγγραφέας Ντολ και η νεαρή σύζυγος του ζουν σε μια μικρή επαρχιακή πόλη στη βορειοανατολική Γερμανία. Αντίθετος με το ναζιστικό καθεστώς, ο Ντολ αδημονεί για την άφιξη των Ρώσων κατακτητών. Είναι για αυτόν οι σωτήρες του γερμανικού λαού. Μετά την επέλαση των ρωσικών δυνάμεων και τ......more

I was delighted when Nightmare in Berlin was chosen by my book group for us to read and discuss in July 2018. Like many readers, I discovered Hans Fallada around 2009, when his 1947 novel, Alone in Berlin (US title: Every Man Dies Alone) was reissued in English. It became a bestseller. Indeed, I was s......more

Nightmare in Berlin was Fallada's penultimate novel (Alone in Berlin was his last) and it's the best book that I've read about Germany in the immediate aftermath of her defeat in the spring of 1945. It's an autobiographical novel as we follow the fortunes of Dr Doll (Fallada) as the struggles to mak......more

I'm mildly obsessed with WW II/holocaust literature, so I thought this would be right up my street. It's about German guilt and regret, and denial, in the immediate aftermath of the war. I gave up 3/4 of the way through. It's slow and repetitive, and unrelentingly depressing. I'm sure it was depress......more