A signal literary event of 2009 has occurred…the belated appearance in English of the novel Every Man Dies Alone, the story of a working-class Berlin couple who took on the Third Reich with a postcard campaign intended to foment rebellion against Hitler’s Germany. To read Every Man Dies Alone, Fallada’s testament to the darkest years of the 20 th century, is to be accompanied by a wise, somber ghost who grips your shoulder and whispers into your ear: “This is how it was. This is what happened.”—Liesl Schillinger

Truth be told, no kidding, Knockemstiff is probably not your cup of tea. The stories are populated by gas-huffing, American cheese-eating, retard-banging bottom feeders. All this would be awful except the prose is undeniable, hysterical and, at times, perfect.