Once a Jailbird

A Novel

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, deceit, and, with one terrible act, he is ensnared in a noose of his own making.

Hans Fallada, whose famous works include Alone in Berlin and The Drinker, brilliantly crafts this dark and moving novel, originally written in 1934, as he describes a seedy criminal underworld of shabby lives and violent deeds, showing how our actions always catch up with us. His work is unparalleled, and Once a Jailbird is a fantastic title to add to Fallada’s recently translated works.

©2014 Hans Fallada (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Worst. Narrator. Ever.

I got the audiobook as a Whisper synch deal with the KIndle book. The book itself is good, but the reader keeps dropping his voice to a whisper. Maybe he thought that's what Whisper synch means! I could not adjust the volume to hear all he said. In frustration I returned the audiobook. I will have to finish it on my Kindle.