The Black Obelisk is Remarque’s famous novel, largely autobiographical.

Difficult years after World War I, a provincial German town, the hero works in a firm selling tombstones … But the money is not enough, the country is monstrous inflation, and he moonlights playing the organ in the chapel at the hospital. His love he meets there, in the psychiatric ward …

The Black Obelisk, on the one hand, a novel about the great power of love, capable of curing even the mentally ill, on the other hand – philosophical reflections on God, religion, the meaning of life, and finally, on the third – a vivid historical picture of the era, where more and more noticeably declares itself approaching fascism.

Author: Erich Maria Remarque
Original language: English
Published: 1956
Literary Genre:  novel, romance, history, psychology