A novel "touching, funny, tender", as Thomas Mann described it, written in the heart of the economic crisis by an author who deeply felt its consequences.


Early 1930s: The German state is unable to pay its debts, other European countries are pressuring for their money, wages are plummeting, layoffs are a daily occurrence, unemployment is rapidly increasing, so are the Nazis.
Three years before Hitler takes power, Johannes Pinneberg and his beloved Emma, whom he calls Manari, learn that they are going to have a child and decide to get married. He hopes for a second job, but ends up getting fired from the one he has. They are forced to move to Berlin. There, among communists, Nazis, Jews, poor households, luxurious villas and cabarets, they try not only to secure their bread, but also to save their dignity.

"European crisis, unemployment, bankruptcies? Not surprising that "And Now, Little Man?" is experiencing new success," wrote Frankfurter Allgemeine last autumn, when the novel was published with the 100 additional previously unknown pages included in the Greek edition. These pages had been cut from the original 1932 version because the publisher feared the Nazis' reaction to the excerpts about cabarets, nudists, brothels, and Jews.
Written in an era of global economic crisis, when guilt for World War I burdened Germany with enormous reparations, when the Weimar Republic was collapsing and Hitler's star was rising, the novel propelled Fallada's fame to new heights.
"What 'The Sorrows of Young Werther' was for the 18th century, 'And Now, Little Man?' was for the 20th," wrote Die Zeit just a few months ago. A sweet love story in an environment of insecurity, unemployment, and poverty, turmoil, and social and political alienation. "One of the most impressive aspects of the book are the parallels that can be drawn with today," added Die Welt during the German celebrations for the new edition of "And Now, Little Man?".