Summary of Little Man, What Now
“Little Man, What Now” tells the story of a young couple – Johannes Pinneberg and Emma Mörschel – who try to live through the economic collapse of Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Amid mass unemployment and the rise of political extremism, they struggle to keep their jobs and build a stable life for their newborn child in an increasingly hostile and uncertain world.
Reasons to read Little Man, What Now
“Little Man, What Now” was Hans Fallada’s breakthrough novel, earning him widespread recognition for his socially critical works about the ‘little people’ in interwar Germany. A modern classic set in the final years of the Weimar Republic, just before the Nazi rise to power, “Little Man, What Now” is also a timeless story about how the lives of ordinary people are shaped by larger economic forces. This novel is, along with “Every Man Dies Alone”, one of the best-known works by the German writer Hans Fallada.
Setting: Berlin (Germany)
Original title: Kleiner Mann, was nun?
Year of publication: 1932
Nr of pages: 340
