Author(s): Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz

General Fiction

The devastating rediscovered classic written from the horrors of Nazi Germany, as one Jewish man attempts to flee persecution in the wake of Kristallnacht.

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