A highly rated book that fell flat for me. It does force the reader to imagine why Germany was like just prior to WWII. The narrator is likeable and I liked the idea behind the book. But the inner monologue grew wearisome. While the narrator is pretty well developed, the flurry of characters he encounters are not, although their varied POVs are eye opening and unforgiving. I did not like the ending. I wish the author had been able to edit the manuscript before his untimely death. 

I bought this book because I was recommended the book by a colleague and I will say in some parts, this was a really good novel. It does have some imperfections, but that is explained by the context of the book which is really important to note. The book is actually a partially fictionalised version of Bocshwitz's life and he wrote this in around 6 weeks whilst he was escaping to Australia due to being Jewish, in 1938. What is tragic, is that Boschwitz dies not long after this, fleeing Australia and being sent back to the UK, when the ship he is travelling on gets bombed. It feels rushed in areas, but he churned out this novel at break-neck speed and it is quite phenomenal when considering this. 

The emotions that are induced through reading this are quite incredible. Otto Silberman is not a very likable character but when his life is turned completely upside down and he is forced to flee, you start to feel guilty for ever disliking any attribute of his character. Sometimes, the writing was also so compelling that you felt the tiredness of Otto's mind and the monotony of travelling on the trains trying to escape. It really captures the feeling of being lost in your identity and the contemplation over one's existence. 

One thing that also gave me chills, was the foreboding of the Holocaust. Otto is forced to leave in 1938 where the mass killing of the Jewish faith had only really just begun, and the general public weren't fully aware of the extent of the Holocaust. I was particularly blown away by the line (that goes something along the lines of) "what's the worst they can do, shave our heads and kill us?" It chilled me to the bone. To think that Boschwitz himself, fleeing countries desperate to live, could think naively about this circumstance, when it was slowly starting to come true, blows my mind.