ERLIN, NOVEMBER 1938. Synagogues are being burnt, Jews rounded up and their businesses destroyed. Otto Silbermann has managed to evade the escalating violence of the Nazi regime - until now. With stormtroopers battering on his door, he sneaks out the back and begins a desperate race to escape this homeland that is no longer home.

CRITICS HAIL THE YEAR'S ESSENTIAL LITERARY REDISCOVERY

'Vibrating with fury… a highly accomplished work, filled with vivid characterisation, sharp dialogue and intensely observed scenes' Financial Times

'By turns claustrophobic, dizzying and symbolic, The Passenger is a work with sufficient pace to be a thriller, yet possessed of enough nuance and psychological depth to be of real literary weight' Spectator

'Part John Buchan, part Franz Kafka and wholly riveting… a gripping novel that plunges the reader into the gloom of Nazi Germany as the darkness was descending. It deserved to be read when it was written. It certainly deserves to be read now' Jonathan Freedland, Guardian

'There have been a number of great novels about the Second World War that have come to light again in recent times, most notably Suite Française and Alone in Berlin. I'm not sure that The Passenger might not be the greatest of them' David Mills, Sunday Times