'The Black Obelisk' (1956) is a famous novel by Remarque, largely autobiographical.

The difficult years after the First World War, a provincial German town, the hero works in a company selling tombstones... But there is not enough money, the country is experiencing monstrous inflation, and he earns extra money by playing the organ in the chapel at the hospital. He meets his love there, in the psychiatric ward...

'The Black Obelisk' is, 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 hand, a vivid historical picture of an era in which the approaching fascism is increasingly declaring itself.

Author: Erich Maria Remarque