"All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque is a semi-autobiographical novel first published in 1928. The book follows Paul Bäumer, a young German soldier fighting on the Western Front during World War I. Through his eyes, readers experience the extreme physical and mental trauma of trench warfare and the devastating detachment soldiers feel from civilian life. As Paul and his comrades endure brutal battles for meaningless scraps of land, they watch friends fall one by one, slowly losing their humanity and will to live.