Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz

Hailed as a remarkable literary discovery, a lost novel of heart-stopping intensity and harrowing absurdity about flight and persecution in 1930s Germany Berlin, November 1938. Jewish shops have been ransacked and looted, synagogues destroyed. As storm troopers pound on his door, Otto Silbermann, a respected businessman who fought for Germany in the Great War, is forced to sneak out the back of his own home. Turned away from establishments he had long patronized, and fearful of being exposed as a Jew despite his Aryan looks, he boards a train. And then another. And another . . . until his flight becomes a frantic odyssey across Germany, as he searches first for information, then for help, and finally for escape. His travels bring him face-to-face with waiters and conductors, officials and fellow outcasts, seductive women and vicious thieves, a few of whom disapprove of the regime while the rest embrace it wholeheartedly. Clinging to his existence as it was just days before, Silbermann refuses to believe what is happening even as he is beset by opportunists, betrayed by associates, and bereft of family, friends, and fortune. As his world collapses around him, he is forced to concede that his nightmare is all too real. Twenty-three-year-old Ulrich Boschwitz wrote The Passenger at breakneck speed in 1938, fresh in the wake of the Kristallnacht pogroms, and his prose flies at the same pace. Taut, immediate, infused with acerbic Kafkaesque humor, The Passenger is an indelible portrait of a man and a society careening out of control.

A Novel

The Passenger

Die grosse Wiederentdeckung Deutschland im November 1938. OTto Silbermanns Verwandte und Freunde sind verhaftet oder verschwunden. ER selbst versucht, unsichtbar zu bleiben, nimmt Zug um Zug, reist quer durchs Land. INmitten des Ausnahmezustands. ER beobachtet die Gleichgultigkeit der Masse, das Mitleid einiger Weniger. UNd auch die eigene Angst. "Ein wirklich bewegender, aber auch instruktiver Text. EIn groSSer Gewinn! Fur einen Dreiundzwanzigjahrigen ein ganz erstaunliches Werk." Brigitte Kronauer

Der Reisende

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.

Yolcu

O passageiro

På kvällen den 9 november 1938 bankar det på dörren till familjen Silbermanns våning i Berlin. Otto Silbermann räddar sig ut genom bakdörren. Oförmögen att återvända till det hem som vandaliserats av nazisterna vandrar han genom staden. Runt omkring pågår livet som vanligt, samtidigt som han själv i ett slag blivit villebråd. Trots berättelser om bekanta som fängslats eller försvunnit har Silbermann tänkt att förföljelserna inte angår honom. I ett desperat försök att rädda det som räddas kan stiger han på ett tåg. ”Resenären” är en tät och omskakande roman som rör sig allt snabbare mot det oundvikliga slutet. Boschwitz skrev den under tiden omedelbart efter Kristallnatten 1938, och den utgavs på tyska för första gången våren 2018.

Resenären

De reiziger is een aangrijpende roman over een joodse man, Otto Silbermann, die in 1938 weet te ontsnappen aan de nazipogroms, maar daardoor alles verliest: zijn bezittingen, zijn waardigheid en uiteindelijk ook zijn verstand. Hij vlucht van stad naar stad om aan zijn achtervolgers te ontsnappen - van Berlijn naar Hamburg, van Nürnberg naar Aken. Hij verblijft wekenlang in treinen, wetende dat hij in de val zit, maar blijft desondanks geloven in het goede in de mens. Zelfs wanneer hij, gek geworden van angst, opgesloten wordt in een inrichting, blijft hij aan dat idee vasthouden.

Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz

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