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The Passenger

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About this listen

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

Berlin, November 1938. With storm troopers battering against his door, Otto Silberman must flee out the back of his own home. He emerges onto streets thrumming with violence: it is Kristallnacht, and synagogues are being burnt, Jews rounded up and their businesses destroyed.

Turned away from establishments he had long patronised, betrayed by friends and colleagues, Otto finds his life as a respected businessman has dissolved overnight. Desperately trying to conceal his Jewish identity, he takes train after train across Germany in a race to escape this homeland that is no longer home.

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. Shot through with Hitchcockian tension, The Passenger is a blisteringly immediate story of flight and survival in Nazi Germany.

©2018 J.G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger GmbH (P)2021 Pushkin Press 20th Century Fiction Historical Fiction Jewish World Literature Survival

Critic reviews

Remarkable... disabused, prophetic, and flawlessly penetrating'
-- André Aciman

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I guess I thought I knew a fair amount about the second world war but this was such an eye opener for me. It's first person narrative grips you by the throat and drags you on this perilous journey through Nazi Germany at the start of the war.
The story's fast paced narrative made it hard to keep up with at times especially with the fast talking narrator. I found I had to lower the speed just so I didn't miss anything important. I know it is a tense book but maybe slowing down would have added tension.
All in a all great literally experience.

Compelling story that left me heart broken.

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An incredible, shocking yet still thrilling tale that must be heard and is an important addition to the literature that records persecution and the holocaust. The narrator is excellent, capturing the sense of mounting panic and desperation as the story progresses. Highly recommended.

Must be read

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A very clear evocation of the good and bad in German society in the run up to the Holocaust. There is clear insight into the human condition and all the shades of grey of both Germans and the Jews .

A Stressful Read

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Great Book could feel the tension Build
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Should be in every classroom

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Loved it. I kept reminding myself of the year it was written. Shocking to hear how early events like these happened in Germany

This should be taught in schools. Very powerful

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