By HANS FALLADA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Publicity Contact: Nick Davies // 718.722.9204 // [email protected] “One of the most extraordinary and compelling novels ever written about World War II. Ever. Please do not miss this.” ALAN FURST, BESTSELLING NOVELIST EVERY MAN DIES ALONE by HANS FALLADA 978-1-935554-04-2 // 5½ x 8¼ // 554 pages // TR // $16.95 A rediscovered masterpiece, lost after World War II, and translated for the first time by Melville House. Every Man Dies Alone tells a sweeping true story of one working-class couple who decide to take a stand against the Nazis when their only son is killed at the front. With nothing but their grief and each other against the awesome power of the Reich, they launch a simple, clandestine resis- tance campaign that soon has enraged Gestapo on their trail and a world of terrified neighbors and cynical snitches ready to turn them in. More than an edge-of-your-seat thriller, more than a moving romance, even more than liter- ature of the highest order, Every Man Dies Alone is a deeply moving story of two people who stand up for what’s right, and for each other. BREAKING NEWS: April 2013 marks the 70th anniversary of the Nazis’ execution of the heroic couple on whose story Fallada based his gripping novel. Timed to coincide with this significant anniversary, Melville House is reissuing this masterpiece with our original cover. Now more than ever, their breathtaking story demands to be read. “Has the suspense of a John Le Carre novel. A visceral, chilling portrait.” THE NEW YORKER “One of the most extraordinary ambitious literary resurrections in recent memory.” THE LOS ANGELES TIMES Every Man Dies Alone includes a reading group guide and extensive back- matter about Otto and Elise Hampel and their incredible story. It is also one of our Hybrid Books: each copy of the book contains a link to bonus materials in- cluding more photographs, essays by Hans Fallada, and an exclusive interview with Fallada’s son about his father. “German people wake up!” One of the many postcards for which the Hampels Mugshots of Otto and Elise Hampel, on whom lost their lives Every Man Dies Alone is based “It has something of the horror of Conrad, the madness of Dostoyevsky and the chilling menace of Capote’s In Cold Blood. …Fallada has created an immortal symbol of those who fight back against ‘the vile beyond all vileness’ and so edeemr us all.” THE NEW YORK TIMES HANS FALLADA was the pen name of German author Rudolph Ditzen, whose books were bestsellers in the US and UK prior to World War II and were even made into Hollywood movies. But during the war he refused to join the Nazi Party, and found himself cast into a Nazi insane asylum. He died soon after the war’s end, but not before writing Every Man Dies Alone—in a feverish 24 days— based upon the Gestapo file of an actual case given to him by a friend. He did not live to see its publication. Melville House also publishes his novels Wolf Among Wolves, Little Man What Now?, and his brilliant memoir The Drinker. MICHAEL HOFMANN is an award-winnign poet and translator whose many honors include the IMPAC Dublin, the Wolff Translation Prize, the PEN Transla- tion Prize, and the Schlegel-Tieck Prize three times over. “This isn’t a novel about bold cells of defiant guerrillas but about a world in which heroism is defined as personal refusal to be corrupted.” PUBLISHERS WEEKLY MELVILLE HOUSE “One of a kind.” A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR THE GLOBE AND MAIL A SAN FRANCISCO “I very much enjoyed the rediscovery Chronicle of Hans Fallada… a wonderful novel. BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Compelling.” IAN MCEWAN, NOVELIST “At once a riveting page turner and a memorable portrait of wartime Berlin…With its vivid cast of ONE OF THE NEW YORKER’S characters and pervasive sense of menace, Ev- ery Man Dies Alone is an exciting book.” Favorite FICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR NPR’S FRESH AIR ONE OF THE NEW REPUBLIC’S “An unforgettable portrait of a mid- TOP 5 FICTION BOOKS OF dle-aged couple’s campaign of civil THE YEAR disobedience against the Nazis.” VOGUE “A signal literary event has occurred… Rescued from the grave, from decades of forgetting…[Ev- ery Man Dies Alone] testifies to the lasting value A BARNES & NOBLE of an intact, if battered, conscience REVIEW’S TOP 10 FICTION THE NYT BOOK REVIEW BOOK OF THE YEAR A Toronto Globe & MAIL “A masterpiece.” BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR LA WEEKLY “An unrivaled and vivid por- A Sunday TELEGRAPH BEST trait of life in wartime Berlin.” BOOK OF THE YEAR PHILIP KERR, NOVELIST “This is a novel that is so powerful, so intense, that it almost hums with elec- ONE OF THE Washington tricity.” CITY PAPER’S TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE YEAR MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE “Essential ... Thrilling.” AMAZON.COM TOP TEN NOVELS OF THE YEAR SO FAR THE ST. PETERSBURG TIMES “A classic. As morally powerful as NPR’S TOP TEN anything I’ve ever read.” SUMMER READS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH.

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