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THE BORROWED LIFE - WHO WE ARE WHEN THE MASKS FALL
The story of a man searching for the person behind his roles
This is the seventh volume in the book series "Our Time".
A man stands in front of a shop window. Behind the glass are the roles of his life: mechanic, prisoner, property developer, husband, father, emigrant, author.
But who remains when the roles disappear?
THE BORROWED LIFE begins with this question.
Over the course of his life, Bernhard Christoph Lichtinger has been many things: photo lab technician, mechanic, lifeguard, taxi driver, parcel delivery driver, prisoner in East Germany, property developer, caravan importer and eventually author.
A straightforward CV would probably look rather different.
Some of these roles brought freedom and success. Others ended in loss, crisis or another beginning. From childhood and boarding school in Germany to imprisonment in East Berlin, professional success, collapse, emigration to New Zealand and years spent living on the road, one identity repeatedly gave way to another.
Yet beneath all those changing roles remains a more difficult question:
Who are we when the things that once defined us no longer do?
THE BORROWED LIFE is for people who have begun to wonder how much of their identity belongs to them – and how much has been borrowed from work, relationships, success, family, status and the expectations of others.
Drawing on a life marked by repeated changes of direction, the book explores identity and freedom, success and loss, belonging and new beginnings. It asks what happens when familiar roles disappear and the person underneath them can no longer hide quite so easily behind a profession, relationship or carefully constructed life.
This is not a guide to discovering your “true self”. There are no exercises, personality systems or instructions for becoming the person you were supposedly always meant to be.
Perhaps there is nothing to become.
Instead, THE BORROWED LIFE looks at what remains when identities change, plans collapse and life removes roles we once thought were permanent.
A profession can disappear. A relationship can end. Success can lose its meaning. A country can cease to feel like home.
And then the question becomes remarkably simple:
Who am I when all the roles fall away?
THE BORROWED LIFE is part of the OUR TIME series.
Bernhard Christoph Lichtinger writes from lived experience – from setbacks, detours, new beginnings and encounters that never needed to be invented. His texts begin where real life leaves its mark.
If you have not yet read a volume from the book series “OUR TIME”, you can begin with one of the following books. Each volume stands on its own and explores a different aspect of our lives.
Volume 2: THE DOG CATCHERS OF BLENHEIM
Volume 4: THE WORLD IN THE MIND
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