1955 East German edition of his big-city masterpiece: it was Manas with a Berlin accent, Praised on its publication by Robert Musil among others (I assert with confidence that this work should have the greatest influence!) it has attracted strangely little attention from Döblin scholars. Manas Part 1 tells the story of a war-hero suddenly struck with an existential realisation of Death. He demands to be taken to Shiva's Field of the Dead in the high Himalaya to commune with Souls on their way to dissolution. Having imbibed several dreadful life stories he falls unconscious, and his body is invaded by three demons who plan to use it to go down to the human world. Manas' guardian, Puto, attempting to drive out the demons, inadvertently kills the body, and Manas's soul wafts back onto the Field. Puto conveys the body back to Udaipur, then returns to the mountains to fight the demons. In Part 2, Savitri, Manas' wife, refuses to believe her husband is dead, and makes her arduous way up into the mountains to find him. Shiva becomes aware of her presence on his Field, and makes contact across their different dimensions. Savitri is able to couple with Manas' soul, and he is reborn into his body. Savitri, revealed now as the Universal Female, rejoins Shiva on Mount Kailash. In Part 3, the reborn Manas rejoices in his physicality, but does not understand where he fits into the world. He comes upon Puto fighting the three demons, captures them, and is carried by them back down into the world. A village priest declares that Manas and the demons make up a single new terrible being: likely meaning a human no longer innocent but equipped with Id, Ego and Superego. When Manas destroys a temple, Shiva comes down to subdue him, but Manas' Ego calls out to the natural world, and Shiva has to release him, transforming the demons into sleek winged panthers on which Manas rides to connect Souls longing to return with humans tired of life. This powerful and sometimes puzzling story is told in a vigorous, direct and dramatic language, with constantly shifting moods and voices. In order to make it more accessible to English readers in the absence of any guidance from reviewers, the translator C D Godwin has adapted it as a Play for Voices, available for download at the website Beyond Alexanderplatz: Alfred Döblin's