Imagine someone took part in the US lottery for a greencard. He subsequently forgets all about it and hears nothing more until one day he receives a phone call informing him that he can have a US passport, but only under one condition: to genuinely emigrate. Most people would react with wry bemusement, shrug their shoulders, consign the incident to memory as an amusing anecdote and simply get on with their lives. After all: who would be prepared to up sticks and abandon job, friends and apartment on a whim?
Well, Hannes Stein did. Three years ago – during his midday nap – he received news that he had won the green card lottery. Having already earned the reputation of an intrepid writer, Stein then morphed into a fearless “beginner immigrant” overnight. In the meantime he has an apartment in Manhattan, and everything is different. Really different: For nothing Stein that had previously read or heard about America matched reality. Or rather: nothing and everything was as he had imagined.
With the unswerving impartiality of an ethnologist, Hannes Stein has slowly acclimatised himself to his new world: he has learned the daily rituals of an unfamiliar environment, observed the more extreme forms of American politics (he witnessed Barack Obama´s election victory in Sarah Palin’s home state of Alaska), researched, as a participating observer, the country’s history and religion. And in the process, he has made some fascinating discoveries, also in respect of what he has left behind. For his native country continues to serve as a benchmark and surprise him in many ways.
