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Once a Jailbird
Once a Jailbird
Oct 30, 2024 11:24 AM

Author:Hans Fallada

Once a Jailbird

For Willi Kufult, prison life means staying out of trouble, keeping his cell clean, snagging a precious piece of tobacco - and dreaming of the day of his release.

Then he gets out.

As Willi tries to make a new life for himself in Hamburg, finding a job and even love, he still cannot escape his past. Gradually he becomes sucked into a world of drink, desperation and deceit, and with one terrible act, he is ensnared in a noose of his own making...

Hans Fallada's dark and moving 1934 novel brilliantly describes a seedy criminal underworld of shabby lives and violent deeds, showing how our actions always catch up with us.

Reviews

Fallada is a unique novelist, a writer of great sweetness and charm whom historical circumstances forced to take an interest in violent turmoil

—— Philip Hensher , Independent

This is your methadone if you enjoyed The Killing and found it overwhelmingly addictive

—— BBC Radio 2 Claudia Winkleman Arts Show

A weighty and disturbing novel ... with an ingenuity as impressive as it is unnerving

—— The Independent

A master of detective fiction

—— Daily Telegraph

Stirring stuff written by a lady who has proved her worth over and over again, rivalling any other offerings by popular male writers such as Bernard Cornwell and Simon Scarrow.

—— Shropshire Star

What marks this book out is the page-turning combination of tension, threats of violence, strong writing and rattling pace

—— Russell James , Crimetime

A gritty, double-plotted procedural set against Ireland’s banking crisis

—— Christopher Fowler , Financial Times

The most interesting book to come out of Sweden this year, and it’s not another crime thriller!

—— fabruary8

[I] enjoyed it so much I can thoroughly recommend this quite superb tale, and urge all to go out and order a copy today. I can’t wait for the second installment.

—— monstersfromhell.co.uk

This was definitely a brilliant book, that is well worth taking the time to invest in and read.

—— Serendipity Reviews

Tense and full of dramatic twists and turns, I look forward to seeing what is next for the witches in part two which is called Fire

—— MeMyBooksandI

Witches are the new black. This is the first in a best-selling Swedish trilogy and it's one you will not want to miss out on... An epic holiday read, it's got a fantastical, interwoven narrative that is just what you need to take you all the from the airport departure lounge to a shady spot beside the pool.

—— www.sugarscape.com

This book was one of those that I just couldn’t put down, and despite its size I found it to be a really quick read. The characters were all so different and yet still fit together in their own way, and I was truly shocked by some of the events. I loved the fact that the book wasn’t too teenage despite taking place in a high school, as the characters have genuine problems to overcome with each trying to find their own way to cope with their powers. A great read, I’m really looking forward to book two!

—— Book Chick City
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