Im Westen nichts Neues (or All Quiet on the Western Front) is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque.

Plot:
Paul Bäumer is a young soldier in World War I. Spurred on by his class teacher, he and his class mates collectively volunteered their services, but only little time later there numbers are already substantially reduced. That Paul is doing rather well for himself is mostly due to the seasoned soldier Kat, who has a knack for organizing things. But war is still war.

All Quiet on the Western Front is a classic but I wasn’t sure whether it would really be good – too often I don’t agree with what is considered canon. But I absolutely loved this book. As far as I can tell, it is completely realistic, plus it is beautifully written.

Even though German is my native language, most of the things I read, I read in English. That means that I’m a lot more used to reading English and I’m kinda more in tune with English. Also, as it’s not my native language, I’m a lot more forgiving when it comes to linguistic issues or odd turns of phrases. In German, I’m a bitch about these things and it’s really hard to please me with your language skills. But Remarque does so with apparent ease. The book is beautifully written and littered with small moments that made my heart sigh because they’re just so wonderful.

And that despite the realism* with which he captured the way the soldiers talked and acted – which is not pretty, as you can probably imagine. Generally speaking, apart from the language, there is nothing pretty about this book. But that just makes it so effective: the matter-of-fact, distanced beauty with which Remarque talks about the war makes it seem at once as the most normal and the most outlandish thing ever.

The only thing I didn’t really like about it was the afterword by Tilman Westphalen. I just didn’t think that it had much of anything to say. Though there were a few additional Remarque quotes that I liked.

Summarising: You should really read it.

—

*As I don’t know a lot about World War I, or how it went down for a German soldier in it, when I say realism, in this case I mean that I believed it to be entirely real.