 First edition cover | |
| Author | Erich Maria Remarque |
|---|---|
| Original title | Der Weg zurück |
| Translator | Arthur Wesley Wheen |
| Language | German |
| Genre | War novel |
| Publisher | Propyläen Verlag (German) Little, Brown & Co (English) |
Publication date | April 1931 |
| Publication place | Germany |
Published in English | May 1931 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| OCLC | 909194 |
| Preceded by | All Quiet on the Western Front |
The Road Back, also translated asThe Way Back,[1] (German:Der Weg zurück) is a novel byGerman authorErich Maria Remarque, commonly regarded as a sequel to his 1929 novelAll Quiet on the Western Front.[1][2] It was first serialized in the German newspaperVossische Zeitung between December 1930 and January 1931, and published in book form in April1931.
Although the book follows different characters from those inAll Quiet on the Western Front, it can be assumed that they were in the same company, as the characters recall other characters from the earlier novel. Tjaden is the only member of the 2nd Company to feature prominently in both books.
Set a few weeks after the end ofAll Quiet on the Western Front, the novel deals with the fall of theGerman Empire[2] and details the experience of young men inGermany who have returned from the trenches ofWorld War I and are trying to integrate back into civilian life. Its most salient feature is the main characters' pessimism about contemporary society which, they feel, is morally bankrupt because it has allegedly caused the war and apparently does not wish to reform itself.
For example in one scene, a group of student veterans are forced to endure a corny speech by their professor who eulogizes their fallen comrades as having entered a "long sleep beneath the green grasses". The student veterans mock the professor for his naive platitudes with one, Westerholt shouting, "in the mud of shell holes they are lying, knocked rotten, ripped in pieces, gone down into the bog—Green grasses!"[3]
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The book was banned duringNazi rule.[2]
Under theCopyright Term Extension Act of 1998, the book will enter thepublic domain in the United States in2027, with the first half of the serialized version expiring first in 2026.
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