Beside the Golden Door

It is the end of World War I and Germany is struggling to survive. The Ruhr valley's industrial basin is reduced to coalmining and little else, its factories, transports and shops stripped bare as reparation for the war. Frozen in an antiquated system modeled after the military, ordinary citizens face grinding poverty as jobs disappear and savings melt under inflation and devaluation of the German mark. This novel, BESIDE THE GOLDEN DOOR, is about five persons in one family as they immigrate to America, embracing its promise of plenty. It takes the reader from the late 1920s to the end of World War II, alternating with three siblings who have remained behind. It is the story of the less articulate and educated buffeted by powers and politics that are barely understood: the Great Depression and World War II. The book ends in 1950 when one of the American brothers visits Germany and, seeing its devastation, sponsors his nieces' families to America, beginning another cycle of immigration, "beside the golden door."