The Promised Land

From the detention centre on Ellis Island, Ludwig Somner looks across a small stretch of water to the glittering towers of New York, which whisper seductively of freedom after so many years of wandering through a perlious, suffering Europe. The novel recounts the precarious life of the refugee – life lived in hotel lobbies, on false passports, the strange, ill-assorted refugee community held together by an unspeakable past. For Somner, each new luxury - ice cream served in drugstores, bright shop windows, art, a new suit, a new romance - has a bittersweet edge. Memories of war and inhumanity continue to resurface even in this peaceful promised land.

Remarque worked for several decades on this final novel about emigration and exile in the United States during the Second World War and the question of return to Germany in the wake of the war. It was left unfinished at his death. A heavily edited version was published under the title Shadows in Paradise in 1971. In 1998 the state of the text at the time of Remarque’s death was reconstructed from his papers and published under Remarque’s title The Promised Land. The two versions differ substantially. This novel-in-progress poses timeless questions about integration and assimilation, which remain highly relevant around the world today.