In a succinct passage from All Quiet on the Western Front, Baumer, the protagonist, underscores the novel's social implications: "Through the years our business has been killing; it was our first calling in life. Our knowledge is limited to death. What will happen afterwards? And what shall come of us?" These two questions are not only at the heart of All Quiet on the Western Front and the "Lost Generation" that emerged out of World War I, but they also become the basis for Remarque's later novels.

Shadows in Paradise (1977), Remarque's last novel, continues to examine the effects of war on peoples and nations. Similar to those in Arch of Triumph, the characters in Shadows in Paradise are refugees who live in New York in the closing years of World War II.

Moreover, some of them live in a New York hotel similar in ambiance and...