On completion of this book one feels wiped out. A book about war and its aftermath should leave you upset.

The Road Back is the second in a series of two, the first being All Quiet on the Western Front. The first is a tremendous book, a book EVERYONE should read. This second should also be read, but it does not reach up to the caliber of the first. The first takes place in the trenches of France during the First World War. The second takes place in Germany after the war. What makes both books particularly noteworthy is that rather than focusing on the victorious, we look at the war’s losers, the German soldiers who fought and lost. The characters in the second book are for the most part not those in the first. One does presume though that the characters in the second are from the same company as those in the first since they are spoken of. The second book focuses on what faced the German men on their return to their homeland. Both of course are about the horror and the futility of war.

The book depicts the poverty, the lack of food, the rampant profiteering and prostitution that arose, the unstable political situation, the lack of jobs and the German authorities disregard for the returned soldiers’ problems and needs. As a book of historical fiction depicting the situation of Germany after the war, it is exemplary. The mental and physical suffering of the maimed men, those who were lucky enough to return alive, comes to the fore.

The book has a large cast of characters. Some are referred to both by their first and last name. I am fully aware of the need to draw them as a company of men rather than separate individuals; their sense of being part of a group, comrades that through thick and thin they could depend on, is what got them through the war. Nevertheless, one feels less attachment to the separate individuals, there are just too many for that and keeping straight what has happened to each is extremely difficult. In my view, this weakens the book. While the book excellently draws the situation in Germany, it failed to make me feel deep empathy for the characters. This is something I am looking for in a book of historical fiction.

One might complain about the book’s ending. One finds out what happens to each of the many characters but for the central character, he who narrates the story, we find out whether he surmounts his personal difficulties but not how.Time has healed him, but we are not privy to the healing process. Perhaps the author wanted to leave it this way. Time mends wounds for some.

The audiobook narration by Graham Halstead is fine. Neither bad nor extraordinarily well read either. I have given the narration three stars. The tempo is fine, and the words are clearly pronounced.

I do recommend this book, despite the fact that to get the most out of it you really need to take notes. Jotting down the characters’ names and what exactly happens to each is helpful.




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All Quiet on the Western Front 5 stars
The Road Back 4 stars
Arch of Triumph: A Novel of a Man Without a Country 4 stars
The Black Obelisk TBR

The Way Back doesn't grab you by the shoulders and rattle you like its prequel All Quiet but it does a great job in bringing out the disenfranchisement of the War's demobilised survivors. Without glamorising the war or lauding the heroism of those at the front-line the novel is highly successful in highlighting the dissension between ex-servicemen and civilian, both of whom live in equally incomprehensible worlds to the other.

Friendship, nature, life, death, murder, revolution thrown in to the mix for good measure. V good

Masterpiece.

Another Remarque classic, another One of the All-time Greatest novels I've ever read. This is THE ABSOLUTE PERFECT followup to the epic greatness of the story of All Quiet on the Western Front. A must read for anyone who ever heard of World War 1-2, or ever had a friend, or just ever read even a single book!

All quiet on the western front is one of my favourite books of all time. I listened to the swedish audiobook first and then I read it in english. I couldn't find a translated version of The Way Back so I listened on the english version which I think was a bit over my skill level. I sometimes had a hard time keeping up with what was happening and keeping the characters apart. My point is I would probably have given this a higher grade if I understood it better.

I am fascinated with Erich Maria Remarque and how influential and trend setting he must have been. I can't imagine many authors at the time writing the way he does about war and it's consequences for people involved in it. I say this after very little research but books making the nazis angry did something right.

Basically I really admire the themes of both All Quiet on the western front and The Way Back. The Way Back deals with how hard it is to come back to civilian life after a war and traumatic experiences that rescape your whole person. It shows how society at the time didn't take good care of it's veterans (I know this is the case still in many places) and didn't understand or didn't want to understand their struggles.

I will read Three Comrades as well but it will probably be a while until then.

The Road Back is the sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front. They are both dramatic (in a good way) and eye-opening. Where All Quiet in the Western Front is a bit more brutal and shows us life at the Front, The Road Back is more subtle and gives us a glimpse of the emotional side of coming back from WW1 as a young man.
Really one of the best books I read so far!

Miałam poczucie, że w tej książce było mniej Remarque'a, niż w poprzednich, które czytałam. Wciąż była dobra, ale wolę jednak charakterystyczne dla tego autora mocne skupienie się na świecie wewnętrznym bohaterów, tutaj z kolei dostaliśmy więcej świata rzeczywistego.

I recently saw the new film version of All Quiet on the Western Front. I personally thought it a disappointing adaptation of the novel, but it did get me interested in reading this book, which is described as a follow-up. I first read AQotWF when I was a teenager and it made a vivid impression on me. There’s some text below I have marked as spoilers, but they are spoilers for AQotWF rather than for this novel. You can uncover the spoilers if you have already read AQotWF.

My edition of this book has a Translator’s Note, where he comments that a “follow-up” to AQotWF seems at first a strange idea, since the main character of that book, Paul Baumer, is famously killed a few weeks before the end of the War. Moreover, that book is mainly based around 7 core characters, (Paul, Kemmerich, Kropp, Müller, Kat, Haie Westhus, and Tjaden), 5 of whom are killed whilst another, Kropp, is invalided out with an amputated leg. Tjaden is the only one of the seven left in the trenches at the end of the first book and he is the only “continuity” character who features in this one as well. I did wonder whether Albert Kropp might feature but for whatever reason the author decided against re-introducing him.

The upshot is that Erich Remarque creates a new set of characters for this novel, with the idea that they were all members of the same company that Paul and his friends served in. There are occasional references to events described in the first book. Our lead character in this novel is one Ernst Birkholz, who in some ways seems a reincarnated Paul Baumer, since he has a similar personality. The translator comments that even his surname, which translates as “birchwood”, is perhaps intended to remind us of Baumer, Baum being the German word for “tree”.

The novel opens in the last few days of the Great War, and then follows the group of soldiers as they march home, try to pick up their former lives, and reintegrate back into peacetime society. One of the most memorable sections of AQotWF was when Paul went on leave but struggled to relate to the people on the Home Front, and that’s very much the theme of this book. The soldiers have all been indelibly marked by their wartime experiences, which set them apart from others.

“An unbridgeable gulf has opened up between soldiers and those who were not soldiers.”

The ex-soldiers tend to hang around with each other, but even then the close comradeship of frontline soldiers is disrupted by the return of peace. The men return to a Germany in political and economic chaos. Some become involved with the black market and become wealthy whilst others live in dire poverty. They also have to deal with the political divisions of the time.

“Yes, it was all so much easier at the front; just as long as you managed to stay alive, everything was all right.”

For the first half of this book I thought it was heading for a five-star rating. I found the second half slightly less effective. Towards the end I thought some passages were a little overcooked. This was particularly true of a courtroom scene involving one of Ernst’s former comrades.

EMR convincingly conveys the alienation felt by war veterans returning home. Taken as a whole, another very impressive novel.

Sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front.

This story about the bleakness faced by German soldiers when they returned battle-weary from the front at the end of WWI is well-told, but somewhat depressing at the same time. I'm a fan of Remarque's, having read and enjoyed - or maybe appreciated is a better word - both All's Quiet on the Western Front as well as his Arch of Triumph.
Of the three, I liked this one the least, in a large part because of the translation, which had a heavy 'English' aspect to it. For example, the translator's interpretation of German epithets included the insertion of way too many uses of the words 'bloody', and 'old man', and 'old boy', and even at one point when money was the subject, having the character say "I'll give you five 'pounds'," instead of using the more natural, and accurate, German currency, marks.

But Remarque himself was a brilliant writer, who tackled the most difficult of times with trenchant insight, as only a veteran of war and it's aftermath could do. So while the topic itself was disconcerting, I'm glad I read this book. We all know the epigram: "War is Hell." Well, coming home can be hell, too

Ende 1918 kehrt eine Handvoll Soldaten von der Westfront zurück. Wir begleiten Ernst Birkholz, der im Vorgängerband „Im Westen nichts Neues“ zu der Gruppe um Paul Bäumer gehörte, und der sich nun nach vier Jahren konstanter Kampfbereitschaft im Zivilleben zurechtfinden muss. Ohne richtige Perspektive kehren er und andere junge Soldaten in ihre Heimat zurück, tief geprägt von ihren Kriegserlebnissen. Doch statt der einstigen Kriegsbegeisterung schlägt ihnen Verachtung entgegen. Der größte Teil ihrer Jugend besteht aus Erfahrungen, die nun in dem von Hunger und Zerrüttung geprägten Nachkriegsdeutschland nichts mehr wert sind. Und langsam weicht auch die konstante Form der Gemeinschaft einer erdrückenden Einsamkeit.

Mein Fazit: Mit seiner klaren Sprache schildert Remarque sehr eindrücklich die innere Zerrissenheit der Protagonisten und schafft ein weiteres grandioses Werk, das leider nach dem Welterfolg von „Im Westen Nichts Neues“ ein wenig untergegangen ist. Ich kann jedem, der sich für die, in der Literatur etwas weniger präsenten, Kriegsheimkehr interessiert, diesen Roman nur wärmstens empfehlen.

Prieš skaitydama knygą, buvau girdėjusi kelis atsiliepimus, jog ši dalis perskaičiusiems paliko didesnį įspūdį nei pirmoji - ,,Vakarų fronte nieko naujo". Visgi, šį kartelį matyt suveikė per didelių lūkesčių efektas. Knyga tikrai įdomi, tačiau tokio gilaus jausmo, kaip pirmoji dalis tikrai nepaliko.

Pagrindinis herojus - Ersnt su savo fronto draugais sėkmingai grįžta namo. Atrodo, dabar prasidės jų gyvenimas, tačiau dienoms bėgant vyrai supranta, kad jie neturi vietos visuomenėje. Kasdienės problemos jiems nebeatrodo reikšmingos, o sėslus gyvenimas tampa beprasmiu laiko eikvojimu. Skurdas, visuomenės standartai, kurie pagimdo prarają tarp draugų, varo juos į neviltį. Jie yra prarastoji karta. Niekam nereikalingi karo likučiai, kurių likimai daugeliui nei suprantami nei per daug ir rūpi.

,,Ir štai dabar jie ten išeina, mūsų draugai, išeina lyg niekur nieko, vieni, be šautuvų, be rankinių granatų. Norisi bėgti jiems iš paskos, grąžinti juos atgal ir sušukti: Kurgi jūs dabar einate, ką gi ten veiksite, vieni, juk jūsų vieta čia, su mumis, mes juk turime likti drauge, kaip mes gyvensime..." - 53 psl.