''The Night in Lisbon'' (german: Die Nacht von Lissabon) is a novel by

Erich Maria Remarque Erich Maria Remarque (, ; born Erich Paul Remark; 22 June 1898 – 25 September 1970) was a German-born novelist. His landmark novel ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1928), based on his experience in the Imperial German Army during World ...

published in

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

. It revolves around the plight of two German refugees in the opening months of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. 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 Hans Habe (born János Békessy; 12 February 1911, Budapest – 29 September 1977, Locarno) was a Hungarian and American writer and newspaper publisher. From 1941, he held United States citizenship. He was also known by such pseudonyms as Anto ...

), 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 In maritime law, flotsam'','' jetsam'','' lagan'','' and derelict are specific kinds of shipwreck. The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage. A shipwreck is defined as the rema ...

'' and '' Arch of Triumph''. It was Remarque's last completed work.

Plot summary

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.

Reception

''The Night in Lisbon'' became an immediate bestseller in America and Britain when published in English in 1964, remaining on the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' Top Ten list for five months. In his review for the ''Times'', Maxwell Geismar called it a "most brooding and thoughtful novel… it may not quite be a great novel, but it is surely one of the most absorbing and eloquent narratives of our period." In a 1964 book review, ''Kirkus Reviews'' called the book "limp with romantic despair and frayed cynicism making the experience of dislocation and the concentration camps more acceptable to an audience which has avoided it before... Remarque's old following will find that it has a certain urgency without perhaps pausing to wonder whether it is as real as it is readable." Charles Poore wrote in his review for ''The Times''; "It is a brilliant novel and a strange one, not completely successful but hauntingly moving."

Adaptations

Television film

Director Zbyněk Brynych filmed the book in 1970/1971 for West Germany, FRG, with the actors Martin Benrath, Erika Pluhar, Vadim Glowna, Horst Frank, Charles Régnier and others. FRG first showed the film on April 9, 1971. It was released on DVD in 2011, in a double DVD edition with a booklet in the "Big Stories" series.

Film

With an original expected release for the end of 2023, a film based on ''The Night in Lisbon'' is being produced. Ian Stokell is the author of the screenplay and producer of the film.

Radio

In 2019, Radio Bremen and Westdeutscher Rundfunk, WDR produced a two-part radio play edited and directed by Silke Hildebrandt with Max Simonischek, Max von Pufendorf, Christian Hockenbrink, Lisa Hrdina, Daniel Wiemer, Stefanie Kirsten, Wolfgang Rüter, Ursula Grossenbacher, Jasmin Schwiers, Jörg Kernbach, Justus Maier, Birte Schrein, Jean-Paul Baek, Daniel Stock, and Holger Kraft.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Night in Lisbon, The 1962 German novels Novels by Erich Maria Remarque Novels set during World War II Novels set in Lisbon