Noc v Lisabonu - CDmp3 (Čte Václav Neužil)

"He spoke to me, but I knew I was just a wall to him, occasionally returning an echo." On the run from a deranged Europe in 1942, they met in the bureaucratic jungle of the Lisbon port, where refugees from Germany and other occupied countries are sometimes allowed to squeeze onto a ship to America. However, the narrator has just lost all his money in a desperate gamble for a ticket. A passerby with a passport in the name of Schwarz promises to give him his, along with an American visa, on the condition that he stays with him at night and listens to his story. As they walk through bars and sleeping streets that seem so indifferent, the story of a refugee fleeing the tyranny of great history driven by herd mentality comes alive in his confession. Schwarz tells his story to give meaning to his Calvary, to seek absolution for the death of his fanatical brother-in-law, and to come to terms with his wife's departure. One of the most impressive elegies of emigrant literature tests the significance of memory in the face of inhuman circumstances and the strength to live, fight, and love on, despite all the world's cancer. Remarque knows that the descent into the darkest night is, like in the film Casablanca, one-way and that there is no returning – but the hope for a more humane life always dies last. Length of the recording: 8 hours 24 minutes.