Two books set in Berlin and one in NY

Firstly Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin tells the story of  Franz Biberkopf, a recently released criminal, and his futile  attempts to go straight in 1920s Berlin, but the real core of the book is Berlin itself, with all the glamour, glitz and misery of the Weimar Republic. Doblin moved in that intellectual circle of communists, writers and artists that included Bertold Brecht, Thomas Mann and Joseph Roth. Although Berlin Alexanderplatz is sometimes compered to Ulysses or the writing of Kafka, I feel that it is closer to Brecht, although instead of being a play it is a sprawling modernistic novel which includes all the sights and sounds of the city; as well as news clippings of the day. Despite his criminal activities and violent outbursts the reader can't help feeling some sympathy for Biberkopf doomed by circumstances. Not central to the narrative, but always in the background is the inevitable rise of Fascism. Truly a modernist masterpiece.
Manhattan  Transfer, by John Dos Passos, is another modernist tour de force about a city.  This time however the narrative follows four characters in 1920s New York. Although the narrative is more cinematic and incudes characters from a wider range of backgrounds. the novelpossesses the same restless energy as Alexanderplatz and once again it is the city that is the central 'character'.
​Read side by side the two books give a fascinating picture of life in two cities in the early years of the Twentieth Century as well as that of the development of the modern novel.
Alone in Berlin, by Hans Fallada, Set later than than the other two books, Alone in Berlin 
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jan/07/hans-fallada-alone-berlin-rereading 
Hans Fallada was a very interesting character but I'll leave it to the above link to tell you more about the novel and man. it does far better than I could.