The Night in Lisbon
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First English-language edition (US) | |
| Author | Erich Maria Remarque |
|---|---|
| Original title | Die Nacht von Lissabon |
| Translator | Ralph Manheim |
| Language | German |
| Genre | War novel |
| Publisher | Harcourt, Brace & World (US) Hutchinson (UK) |
Publication date | 1962 |
| Publication place | Germany |
Published in English | 1964 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 244 |
| OCLC | 295965 |
The Night in Lisbon (German: Die Nacht von Lissabon) is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque published in 1962. It revolves around the plight of two German refugees in the opening months of World War II. One of the refugees relates their story during the course of a single night in Lisbon in 1942. The story he recounts is mainly a romantic one, and also contains a lot of action with arrests, escapes and near-misses. The novel is realistic, Remarque was himself a German refugee (although the novel is fictional and only loosely based on the experience of Remarque's friend, novelist Hans Habe), and provides insight into refugee life in Europe during the early days of the war. The book completed what was known as Remarque's "emigre trilogy" along with Flotsam and Arch of Triumph.[1] It was Remarque's last completed work.
The story takes place in the opening months of World War II. Josef Schwarz is a refugee who offers his visa and tickets for America to another refugee desperate to leave Lisbon. He does this in exchange for keeping him company throughout one night, a night in which he relates the story of his and his wife's frantic flight from Nazi Germany to Lisbon.