The Night of Lisbon

In 1942, as the fires of war had already swept across most of Europe, Lisbon in Portugal became the last gateway to America. Late at night, the Tagus docks were brightly lit as a passenger liner bound for America took on cargo. A penniless refugee with no ticket wandered along the shore; a stranger approached him and offered to give him two tickets and a passport for nothing—on one condition: that he listen to a story all night long. The man giving away the tickets was named Joseph Schwarz. Because he opposed the Nazi regime, he was denounced by his brother-in-law, a member of the Gestapo, and sent to a concentration camp; after his release he fled Germany and spent years in exile in Europe. By chance, he took on the name and identity of a dead refugee and risked a secret return to Germany, all to see his wife Helen once. Helen resolved to flee with him, and the two moved through Switzerland, France, and Spain, separated and reunited several times, falling more than once into the hands of the secret police and the camps, enduring persecution and terror. Just when the tickets and visas were finally in hand and Lisbon was within reach, fate blocked their way in the cruelest manner. The novel consists entirely of the conversation of that one night, the narrative unfolding layer by layer between telling and listening, weaving together the terror, absurdity, and coldness of the bureaucratic machine on the road of escape with the deep affection of shared adversity. This is the last novel Remarque published during his lifetime, and a heavy farewell written on the basis of his own experience of exile.