Heaven Has No Favorites

7 hrs. 20 min.

Classics

Language Russian

Author Erich Maria Remarque

Narrator Konstantin Karasik

Description

The early 1950s. Racing driver Clerfayt comes to visit an old friend at the Montana sanatorium. There he meets Lillian, a terminally ill young woman. Tired of the sanatorium’s strict rules, of routine and monotony, she decides to run away with Clerfayt to where there is another life, a life that speaks the language of books, paintings, and music, a life that beckons and awakens тревогу. Despite all their differences, the two fugitives share one common trait — uncertainty about the future. Clerfayt lives from race to race, and Lillian knows that her illness is progressing and that she has very little time left to live. Their romance develops very rapidly; they love each other on the edge of doom, as only people can love whose every step is accompanied by the shadow of death.

“Life on Loan” was the first title of the novel, under which it was published in the magazine “Kristall” No. 15–26 throughout 1959. Under this title the novel is also known in Russian translation; however, in German the book was published as “Heaven Has No Favorites” (German: Der Himmel kennt keine Günstlinge). Soon after the publication of the novel “Life on Loan” in “Kristall,” the work was translated into Russian and published in the USSR by the Foreign Literature publishing house. The translation was based on the magazine edition, which is why the first title was retained in the Russian edition.