1878-1957. German novelist. His
Berlin-Alexanderplatz 1929 owes much to James
Joyce in its minutely detailed depiction of
the inner lives of a city's inhabitants, and
is considered by many to be the finest
20th-century German novel. Other works
include November 1918: Eine deutsche
Revolution/A German Revolution 1939-50
(published in four parts) about the formation
of the Weimar Republic. He practised as a
doctor in Berlin until 1933 when his books
were banned and he was exiled; he moved first
to France and from 1941 lived in the USA.