Berlin Alexanderplatz

New to Penguin Classics, a crackling new translation by Michael Hofmann of the great novel of 1920s Berlin life.The subject of this book is the life of the former cement-worker and haulier Franz Biberkopf in Berlin. As our story begins, he has just been released from prison, where he did time for some stupid stuff, and now he is back in Berlin, determined to go straight.To begin with, he succeeds. But then he gets involved in a set-to with an unpredictable external agency that looks an awful lo ...