The Passenger

Description

Germany, November 1938: Otto Silbermann receives a knock on his door and realises he must flee. A respected German-Jewish businessman, he has managed to evade the escalating brutality of the Nazi regime. But now, as he and his wife plan to leave, all avenues are shut down and he is forced to abandon his home amid the untrammelled violence of Kristallnacht. With all the money he can gather stuffed into a suitcase, Otto takes train after train across Germany, desperately seeking to cross the border, every moment terrified a fellow passenger will discover his Jewish identity. An unbearably tense rediscovered classic, The Passenger is an unparalleled depiction of the terrifying atmosphere of Nazi Germany. 'Remarkable... disabused, prophetic, and flawlessly penetrating.' - Andr Aciman 'A story that is part John Buchan, part Franz Kafka and wholly riveting. It is also uncannily prescient ... It deserved to be read when it was written. It certainly deserves to be read now' - Guardian

Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz was born in Berlin in 1915. He left Germany in 1935 for Oslo, Norway, studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, and wrote two novels, including The Passenger. Boschwitz eventually settled in England in 1939, although he was interned as a German "enemy alien" after war broke out-despite his Jewish background-and subsequently shipped to Australia. In 1942, Boschwitz was allowed to return to England, but his ship was torpedoed by a German submarine and he was killed along with all 362 passengers. He was twenty-seven years old.

'Remarkable... disabused, prophetic, and flawlessly penetrating' - Andre Aciman 'A tragicomic fable of the human condition and a comedy of morals and characters of exceptional psychological acuity, The Passenger evokes the worlds of Kafka and Charlie Chaplin' - Le Figaro 'One of the most important books of the year... the insight into the atmosphere of the times is so deep, so immediate, it will make you feel as though you'd accompanied the hero yourself' - Stern 'The Passenger is not only an important and gripping historical testimony, written in real time, but also a shattering story for our own time' - Dagens Nyheter 'The Passenger is a chronicle of dehumanisation with the pace of a thriller' - El Pais