All Quiet on the Western Front was supposedly the most-sold novel in the first half of the last century, and deservedly so. It tells the story of Paul Bäumer, a 19 year old boy, in the first world war and the tragedy of his generation - the Lost Generation. Remarque's prose is accessible and engaging, the war scenes that are so candidly and graphicly described scarring and ugly.
At the time, it was revolutionary for its honesty and its anti-war sentiment, other novels in the genre like Ernst Jünger's Storm of Steel ranged from being far less critical of the great war to romanticising it. For this reason the Nazi Party in Germany banned All Quiet on the Western Front - and for exactly this reason, this book is now as important and relevant as it was when it was published in the 1920s.