Little Man, What Now?

Hans Fallada — one of the most poignant German writers of the 20th century, a master of social realism. His work was born against the backdrop of Germany's catastrophic history between the two world wars: unemployment, inflation, fear, and loss... of human dignity became not just decoration but the essence of his prose. Fallada wrote about ordinary people, whom the era breaks but does not always defeat. His works are filled with empathy, observation, and subtle psychology. "Little Man, What Now?" — one of Fallada's most famous novels, a true and disturbing chronicle of the life of a young German couple on the brink of the rise of Nazism. Johannes Pinneberg and his wife Ethel — "little people" trying to preserve love and dignity in a world that is increasingly losing its human face. Loss of work, humiliation, fear for the future — all this is described with harsh precision, but without despair: the novel contains a bright, stubborn faith in simple human happiness. This is a book about a troubling time and those who lived in it. And, like all true literature, it remains remarkably relevant.