The Drinker (German: Der Trinker) is a novel by German writer Hans Fallada, first published posthumously in 1950.
Fallada began the novel in 1944, when he was imprisoned in a criminal asylum for the attempted murder of his wife. It is autobiographical, in diary form, and tells the story of a man in the grip of alcohol. Beryl Bainbridge called it "both shocking and original".[1] Fallada wrote the manuscript in code, so as to encrypt the contents of the manuscript against detection by asylum staff and officials.[2]