Where the Straight Path Leads

In this autobiography, Arthur Propp guides the reader through the life of a German Jew from East Prussia from the end of the nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century. During this time he comes across many other secular Jews who feel a strong German identity but are nonetheless forced into the role of the “evil other”. After finally managing to escape to England thanks to the support of the British underground, he finds himself, for the first time in his life, at the age of forty-eight, in the position of a foreigner in a country whose language he does not speak and whose culture he is not familiar with. During his short stay there, he decides to emigrate to Bolivia. There he reinvents his life before undertaking his last emigration, which leads him to the coast of British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province. On these pages the narrative is interwoven with observation and reflection. Everything the author experiences is an opportunity for him to think about the human condition and to comment on how fragile and yet indispensable friendship is and why life is worth living all the same.