Since the original request for books covered Europe as a whole, I would
add Hans Fallada, "Little Man, What Now" (1932), on the impact of the
Depression in Germany and the rise of the extremes. At the end of the
novel it is not clear which direction the protagonist, a poor sales
clerk, will turn, to the Left or the Right, only that he will turn to one
of the extremes. It is a poignant, very readable novel that beautifully
captures the despair of ordinary Germans in the early 1930s.
Jeffrey Auerbach
St. Mary's College of Maryland
jauerbac@oyster.smcm.edu