Flotsam: A Novel - Softcover

Remarque, Erich Maria

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0449912477 ISBN 13: 9780449912478

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2013

Synopsis

From the beloved author of All Quiet on the Western Front, Flotsam is a terrifying portrait of Europe as the Nazi shadow falls over the continent.
 
Political dissidents, Jews, medical students, petty criminals: Among the thousands of displaced persons traveling the unpaved roads of Europe, there are Steiner and Kern. Both have irritated officials for outstaying their two-week sojourn in Czechoslovakia. And so they must leave. Not that either has any place to go. Not in 1939. But when a man is led by a guard to the border of one country, he must try another. Until he is escorted from that one too.
 
Living hand-to-mouth, selling shoelaces and safety pins for a few pennies, Steiner and Kern find that, remarkably, there are still pleasures to be had. Paris, for one; love, for another. For amid the heartless cruelty and cold-blooded laws of the Nazi state, there is still humanity and kindness. And there is incomparable joy in falling in love, surviving, and telling your story so it is never forgotten.
 
“The world has a great writer in Erich Maria Remarque. He is a craftsman of unquestionably first rank, a man who can bend language to his will. Whether he writes of men or of inanimate nature, his touch is sensitive, firm, and sure.”—The New York Times Book Review

About this title

From the Inside Flap

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Political dissidents, Jews, medical students, petty criminals. Among the thousands of displaced persons traveling the unpaved roads of Europe, there are Steiner and Kern. Both have irritated officials for outstaying their cold two-week welcome in Czechoslovakia. And so they must leave. Not that either has any place to go. Not in 1939. But when a man is led by a guard to the border of one country, he must try another one. Until he is escorted from that one too.

Living hand-to-mouth, selling shoelaces and safety pins for a few pennies, there are still pleasures to be had in such a life. Paris, for one; love for another. For amidst the heartless cruelty and cold-blooded laws of the Nazi state, there is still humanity and kindness. And there is incomparable joy in falling in love, surviving, and telling your story so it is never forgotten.

About the Author

Erich Maria Remarque, who was born in Germany, was drafted into the German army during World War I. Through the hazardous years following the war he worked at many occupations: schoolteacher, small-town drama critic, race-car driver, editor of a sports magazine. His first novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, was published in Germany in 1928. A brilliant success, selling more than a million copies, it was the first of many literary triumphs. When the Nazis came to power, Remarque left Germany for Switzerland. He rejected all attempts to persuade him to return, and as a result he lost his German citizenship, his books were burned, and his films banned. He went to the United States in 1938 and became a citizen in 1947. He later lived in Switzerland with his second wife, the actress Paulette Goddard. He died in September 1970.

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0449912477
• ISBN 13: 9780449912478
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 448