A Penguin Classics Hardcover

Galvanized by youthful idealism and...

A Penguin Classics Hardcover

Galvanized by youthful idealism and patriotic fervor, eighteen-year-old Paul Bäumer and his schoolmates enlist in the German army at the onset of World War I, but their dreams of heroism shatter beneath the first shells of the bombardment. What they find on the front is not the glorious battle they were promised but a slaughter, and their everyday struggle becomes one not for their country but for their survival. Paul and his fellow soldiers form close bonds, but even their companionship is not enough of a shield when the next shell strikes.

All Quiet on the Western Front is the bestselling German book of all time: Since its publication in 1929, it has sold more than twenty million copies, been translated into more than fifty languages, and been adapted into three acclaimed films. In this brilliant new translation, Maria Tatar draws on her native knowledge of German and her lifelong engagement with German literature to give a new generation of readers a version that comes closest to the lyrical tragedy of the original. Her translation reminds us once again--at a time when we are more divided than ever--of our shared humanity, and of the history we must remember so we do not repeat it.