Bacon’s “Home from Home” published as a book

Over the past years, many of you have been reading my column “Home from Home” in the Suburban Times. It sprang from all the questions an immigrant gets asked as a newcomer by citizens over here as well as an expat by people they left behind. And, of course, I couldn’t help comparing my mother country, Germany, subconsciously with my new home country, the United States, specifically Western Washington. Over time I wrote more than 70 articles, published each and every Friday, covering topics from Nature to food, holidays, and pastimes. Well, you might have read all of them. Or maybe some of them.

The response I received was quite surprising to me. As a matter of fact, it was absolutely gratifying. It turned out that a lot of memories were triggered by these articles, but also a lot of new questions came up. Some of you even asked whether I considered publishing a compendium. Which – are there coincidences?! – I really had started working on at that time. And as I had quite a few readers in my mother country as well, I thought that a German translation might be helpful for them as well. So, this is what kept me busy for the past few months. The result is a double-publication of my column that is available these days on Amazon and in book stores.

While I was working away on the German edition and slightly revised the English original, I came to know that 2019 celebrates the Year of German-American Friendship in the USA. If you want to know more about it, check out wunderbartogether.org, a cooperation of the Federal Foreign Office, Goethe Institut, and BDI (The Voice of German Industry). No, I’m not part of that program, but I find it quite encouraging that it happens when I’m just finished with my own German-American project.

“Home from Home” (251 pages, $ 14.00; ISBN-10: 1796756318, ISBN-13: 978-1796756319) is available in German under the title „In der Fremde daheim“ (279 pages, $ 14.00; ISBN-10: 1796973874, ISBN-13: 978-1796973877). Both softcovers are also available as eBooks via Amazon. They might make some nice gifts either for yourselves, for anybody in the US longing to visit Germany or anybody German who might like to know specifically about the Western Washington region. And, of course, for anybody German-American. Easter is just around the corner …