Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada

Again a book club read. I am not one to pick up a book with Berlin in title. I didnt read any reviews, didnt read the summary or blurb. Just went in blindly. I was expecting it to be the story of the Frau Rosenthal and how she survives the holocaust staying alone in her apartment. Something on the lines of Anne Frank. But in the very next chapter, she is dead. So at that point wasnt sure where this was going. We have two 'good for nothing' characters Eno Fluge and Brokenhaus, who seem to occupy many many pages of this story. An old German couple, angry with the Nazis start writing postcards as a form of protest and leaving them in different locations. Did these postcards cause a silent revolution, was there a civil disobedience movement because of this? Or is this a cat and mouse thriller. Noose closing in on the old couple. Its not both. Its about futility of protest in a totilatarian regime. Still protesting because as a decent human, you cant live with it. The torture at the end is a bit of torture, it seemed to go on and on. I didnt realise untill the very end this book was written right after the second World War. It did read quite modern to me, something like a period drama written in recent times looking at the life in Berlin during Nazi regime. Also, it seemed like a very tiny world. Like Eno getting arrested or how Brokenhaus' son gets adopted. Too many coincidences

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