The Strange World of The Passenger

 ´Be human!´

A Jew is on the run. He is called Otto Silbermann, has a decent amount of cash, a non-Jewish wife, a career of fighting on behalf of Germany during WWI, with a son in France with whom he is talking all the time, mostly asking him to secure an exit visa. He is robbed, told to be reasonable to understand those who don´t want to be seen talking with him. He is on the run, trying to escape to Belgium but turned back, taking a train to Berlin, another to Munich, maybe the next one to Hamburg.

The Passenger (originally published as Der Reisende) by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz is a utterly troubling intellectual experience. It is indeed a book of fiction, but the author was a witness of the infamous Kristallnacht and is inspired by the everyday interaction he witnesses. The feeling of being hunted and neglected, when not directly shamed and accused of being a Jew because born this way, on the most polite, condescending tone. That´s killing you; the polite tone of the neighbours pledging to ´please, don´t put it that way´, and understand that it´s ´against our will´ to behave differently. After all, they were in the party ´just like everyone else´. 

The writing is realistic, focused on the man on the run, Silbermann, who turned overnight into ´a swearword on 2 legs´. The ambiance, the characters he encounters and his attitude are the result of his situation. Thus, he doesn´t have too much time to reflect to his situation, he is aware of the pressure he has to cope with in order to escape. There is a crescendo of events reflected in the increased intensity of his feelings but it is the reader who is observing from afar all the changes. Silbermann, him, he has to run for his life.

Written when the author was himself on the run, The Passenger is becoming a bestseller more than eight decades after its conception. Once in a while, there are always books written by Jews or by authors who were against the Nazi regime are (re)published and are becoming suddenly the talk of everyone but by far this is one of my favorite ´discoveries´. Maybe because it sounds so close from home, so realistic thus frightening. 

I had access to the book in the audiobook format, lively narrated by Neil Hellegers.