"A Wet Dog is Better than a Dry Jew"

"To the Germans, I was a foreigner, to the Muslims a Jew, and to the Jews a juvenile delinquent."

Arye Sharuz Shalicar was born in Germany, the son of Jewish immigrants from Iran. His background wasn't an issue for him until his family moved to Wedding, a Berlin neighbourhood with a high proportion of Muslim immigrants. There, anti-Semitism is the order of the day, and when 15-year-old Shalicar's friends find out he is Jewish he becomes the target of their aggression.

With the help of a Kurdish friend he succeeds in "working his way up" the youth gang hierarchy, and starts to take an interest in his roots. His parents tell him about the persecution of the Jews in Iran, where a "wet dog" was considered better than a "dry Jew". In the end, he emigrates to Israel in 2001. A powerful coming-of-age story set in the heart of Germany.