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More Lives than One: A Biography of Hans Fallada
  • Published: 26 April 2012
  • ISBN: 9780241952689
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

More Lives than One: A Biography of Hans Fallada



A newly revised and updated biography of the remarkable author of Alone in Berlin

Hans Fallada was a drug addict, womanizer, alcoholic, jailbird and thief. Yet he was also one of the most extraordinary storytellers of the twentieth century, whose novels, including Alone in Berlin, portrayed ordinary people in terrible times with a powerful humanity.

This acclaimed biography, newly revised and completely updated, tells the remarkable story of Hans Fallada, whose real name was Rudolf Ditzen. Jenny Williams chronicles his turbulent life as a writer, husband and father, shadowed by mental torment and long periods in psychiatric care. She shows how Ditzen's decision to remain in Nazi Germany in 1939 led to his self-destruction, but also made him a unique witness to his country's turmoil.More Lives Than One unpicks the contradictory, flawed and fascinating life of a writer who saw the worst of humanity, yet maintained his belief in the decency of the 'little man'.

  • Published: 26 April 2012
  • ISBN: 9780241952689
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

Praise for More Lives than One: A Biography of Hans Fallada

A major contribution to our understanding of literature and politics in the tumult of interwar Germany

Harold James

A masterpiece of biography

Choice (USA)

Informative and engaging

The Times Literary Supplement

Williams's life is astute, rigorously researched and engrossing

John Dugdale, Guardian

Williams's reading of Fallada's work is superb, her engagement with Ditzen and his family and friends uncanny. A calmly authoritative biography

Eileen Battersby, Irish Times