The great novel of 1920s Berlin life in a superb new translation by Michael HofmannFranz
Biberkopf is back on the streets of Berlin. Determined to go straight after a stint in prison
he finds himself thwarted by an unpredictable external agency that looks an awful lot like
fate. Cheated humiliated thrown from a moving car embroiled in an underworld of pimps thugs
drunks and prostitutes Franz picks himself up over and over again - until one day he is struck
a monstrous blow which might just prove his final downfall. A dazzling collage of newspaper
reports Biblical stories drinking songs and urban slang Berlin Alexanderplatz is the great
novel of Berlin life: inventing styling and recreating the city as reality and dream
mimicking its movements and rhythms immortalizing its pubs abattoirs apartments and chaotic
streets. From the gutter to the stars this is the whole picture of the city. Berlin
Alexanderplatz brought fame in 1929 to its author Alfred Döblin until then an impecunious
writer and doctor in a working-class neighbourhood in the east of Berlin. Success at home was
short-lived however Doblin a Jew left Germany the day after the Reichstag Fire in 1933 and
did not return until 1945. This landmark translation by Michael Hofmann is the first to do
justice to Berlin Alexanderplatz in English brilliantly capturing the energy prodigality and
inventiveness of Döblin's masterpiece.
