The Night in Lisbon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

First edition book cover
First edition book cover

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. It is the story of one refugee telling his story to another during the course of a single night in Lisbon. 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 very realistic, Remarque was himself a German refugee (although the novel is entirely fictional), and provides excellent insight into refugee life in Europe during the early days of the war.