The Passenger Paperback – Import, 30 September 2021

The Passenger is an outstanding literary work unbelievably written back in 1938! It is a moving, panoramic view of strange events prior to the second world war as observed by a Jew.Otto Silbermann, a well established businessman, a law abiding citizen, a soldier who fought for Germany in the Great War, in possession of wealth, family and friends is above all a German Jew. Overnight his patriotism, his establishments, are swept away as the storm troopers come knocking at his door and Silbermann forcibly flees through the back of his home leaving all his posessions behind. Regardless of his Aryan outlook, he flees across Germany fearing the stamp of J on his identity. As the walls of securities around him shatters, Silbermann, consumed by fear, collapses into the arms of despair.The Passenger was a breathless, thrilling and at times a nerve-racking experience for me. The most unique thing about this book is that Boschwitz himself was deeply affected by the events of Kristallnacht and hence painted a compelling character in a thoroughly precise atmosphere. The authenticity of the sudden forfeiture of survival and the fears and mental dilemma of the Jews was richly evident and genuine. I could actually sense the tension, fear, confusion and agitation of Silbermann as he switched stations. This is a very emotional, enlightening and a brilliant work of literature.With such striking passages and extraordinary tale of an ordinary man, I wonder how marvellously thrilling the original of this translation would be. I highly recommend this book.Thank you HenryHolt Books for my copy!

23 year old Ulrich Boschwitz began writing The Passenger immediately after Kristallnacht in November 1938, and finished the book in a feverish four weeks. Shot through with Hitchcockian tension, The Passenger is a blistering immediate story of flight and survival in Nazi Germany. The author evidently felt compelled to fight his own looming sense of powerlessness by writing, by bearing literary witness to the crimes being perpetrated in Germany and Austria—crimes that the world was treating with terrifying indifference or, at any rate, appalling inaction. Unfortunately, though the author escaped from Germany, he was killed tragically at the age of 27.An English version of this book appeared in the spring of 1939 but failed to have an impact and was out of print shortly thereafter. It was rediscovered recently and the revised edition was released in 2021 to widespread positive reviews and has since been published in more than 20 languages. In 2021, it entered the Sunday Times list of Top 10 hardback fiction bestsellers more than 80 years after it was originally published.