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 perilous, suffering Europe.
Remarque's final novel tells of the precarious life of the refugee - life lived in hotel lobbies, on false passports, a strange, ill-assorted 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 - carries a bittersweet edge, as memories of war and inhumanity resurface even in this peaceful promised land.