Berlin Alexanderplatz: The Story of Franz Biberkopf

First published in the original German in 1929, written by Alfred Döblin (died 1957), then translated into this English edition in 1931 by Eugene Jolas (died 1952), now in the public domain and considered a Modernist, urban masterpiece of Weimar-era German literature. Alfred Döblin's gritty classic ''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' follows Franz Biberkopf, a former convict trying to go straight in the brutal underworld of 1920s Berlin.
After leaving prison, Biberkopf struggles to escape his past and the criminal underworld, enduring betrayal, mutilation, and the murder of his lover before reaching a desperate, rehabilitated, and quieter existence.