A new book is hitting shelves, telling the story of an American man who questioned the American Dream and eventually made Ōhope his home.

Robert Probst’s autobiography, Waking Up from the American Dream, follows his life and his journey towards what he describes as “waking up” from the American Dream.

Probst said as a young man, he wanted to become a commercial airline pilot because he wanted to travel. He decided to go through the military route but found he was too tall to enter the Air Force or Army flight programmes, so he applied for the Navy Flight Program.

Probst passed the written test and was invited to complete a physical examination.

He was told his eyesight was too weak to become a pilot, although he was offered another role working on submarines.

He turned the offer down, deciding he did not want to spend months underwater.

“That kind of sealed the deal,” Probst said.

He then began planning to travel around the world.

Inspired by stories of French Polynesia, Probst travelled to the islands, where he spent about four months. He eventually found work as a crewman on a sailboat and spent two months sailing through the islands.

His next stop was New Zealand.

Probst arrived in Auckland, where he stayed for six months. He worked at an engineering firm in Napier before travelling to Motueka to pick tobacco.

It was during his time picking tobacco that Probst began asking himself bigger questions about his life.

He said he had a breakthrough which changed the way he saw the world and helped him feel like he had found where he fitted.

He continued his travels, going to Australia and later across Asia as part of a year-and-a-half journey that ended in a return to America.

A few years after returning “home”, Probst settled down and started a family.

He came back to New Zealand to raise his family in the late 90s and worked at various large companies in the Eastern Bay as an engineering manager, while also volunteering at golf clubs in the area.

Probst returned to the United States for two years in 2010, hoping to “become an American again”.

He said the competition between people and the struggles faced by those who were left out of society affected him.

His youngest daughter and son went with him, but after six months at a local high school, his daughter told him she wanted to move back to Whakatāne.

The family eventually returned to New Zealand, where Probst has now lived for about 30 years.

He said New Zealand was now home.

His life experiences have formed a major part of the book, particularly his understanding of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Probst discovered Maslow’s work during his travels after leaving New Zealand. He found a book called Religion, Values and Peak Experiences in a bookstore in Australia and said it described experiences he had gone through in French Polynesia and New Zealand.

The ideas later helped him connect the hierarchy of needs with his thoughts about happiness and the American Dream.

For Probst, the American Dream is about more than financial success.

He describes different aspects of the dream, including safety, physical wellbeing, belonging and the desire for recognition or achievement.

He believes the pursuit of individual greatness can come at the expense of community.

The book argues that people should move away from the pursuit of individual heroic greatness and towards a more inclusive and supportive community.

Probst said the idea for the book came about 15 years ago.

He initially wanted Americans to reflect on what had happened to the American Dream and on the changes he had seen in American society.

He spent years collecting notes and researching the subject before his wife, Marilyn, encouraged him to finish the book.

It was initially twice as long, and Probst spent a lot of time editing before self-publishing it.

He said the book was both a story about the damage the American Dream could cause and the good parts of the dream.

Waking up from the American Dream is available at Whakatāne Paper Plus, it is also available online through Amazon.