Very briefly A famous racer falls in love with a terminally ill girl. Their short-lived happiness ends with the death of the racer at one of the rally. A few weeks later the girl dies of tuberculosis.

The famous racing driver Clerfay was traveling to the Alpine sanatorium "Montana" for tuberculosis patients to visit his friend and former partner Holman. On a winding mountain road he met a team of horses with a sleigh. The horses got scared and reared up, turning the sleigh across the road, but Clerfe grabbed them by the bridle in time. The sleigh was driven by a tall man with a cold, arrogant face. Behind him sat a beautiful young woman with a tanned face and very light transparent eyes. At first sight, the man aroused acute antipathy in Clerfay.

Holman spent almost a year in this sanatorium, and was very homesick for his profession. To support his friend, Clerfe stayed for a few days, checking into a local hotel. From Holman he learned that the man he met on the road was a wealthy descendant of Russian White emigrants, Boris Volkov, who was being treated for tuberculosis in the Alps. He rented a small house near the sanatorium. The woman, twenty-four-year-old Lilian Dunkirk, was his lover and was treated with Holman.

That evening, Lilian's best friend died of tuberculosis, and the girl thought about her future. She spent four post-war years in Montana. Before that, she lived through the war, and did not know at all how people live in peacetime. She was seriously ill and could spend her whole life in this comfortable prison. Boris tried to console her, but Lilian wanted to live. She was irritated by his watchful solicitude.

That same evening, Lilian sneaked out of the sanatorium and spent the evening with Clerfay at the Palace Bar. They spent several evenings together. Liliane seemed special to Clerfay, not at all like his former mistress Lydia Morelli, who mastered all the feminine tricks. One evening, Lilian was noticed by the director of the sanatorium, and the next day he lectured her about regime and health. In response, she stated that she was leaving the sanatorium and asked Clerfe to take her to Paris. Boris could not dissuade her from this rash act.

Lilian's uncle lived in Paris, who paid for her treatment with money left over from her parents who died during the war. The girl decided to go straight to him. On the way to Paris, Lillian felt how the frozen image of the world suddenly began to thaw, moved and spoke to her. He didn't know what would happen to her next, but she lived. The journey lasted two days. They spent their first night in a small hotel near a picturesque lake. Clerfay was also a man without a future, existing from one race to another. This is precisely why he attracted Lillian - she had no future either.

Arriving in Paris, Lilian rented a room at the small Bisson Hotel on the Quai Grande Augustin. Having laid out her things, she went to Uncle Gaston to pick up her money. She had no need to save, and she decided to buy herself some clothes. Uncle, a very stingy man, was outraged by such extravagance. The niece did not inform him about her fatal illness, and he intended to marry Lillian as profitably as possible, so as not to spend his own money on her.

After some time, Clerfe went to Rome for two weeks to sign a contract to participate in the next auto race. Sometimes he remembered Lillian “with a tenderness previously unknown,” however, having met Lydia Morelli, he realized that Lillian was not a match for him: “she needs a man who can give her a lot of time.” Returning to Paris, Clerfay took his mistress with him. Lilian, meanwhile, ordered an entire wardrobe from the most expensive fashion house in Paris. The fact that she didn’t have to save money and think about the future now seemed like an advantage to her.

Meeting Lilian again, Clerfay was amazed at how she had changed. She “seemed to have just stepped over the mystical edge of childhood,” turning into a charming woman. Now Clerfe did not understand why he stayed so long in Rome, and why he took his mistress with him. Remembering Lilian in Rome, he exaggerated her provincialism, afraid of falling in love and losing himself. In Paris, he started dating a girl again. One day they encountered Lydia Morelli in a restaurant, she was accompanied by a wealthy gentleman. Lillian did not become jealous - she did not have time for this. Clerfay was hurt by this; he felt that the girl was slipping away from him. In order not to lose Lillian, he confessed his love to her - now he only needed her. The girl was silent - she did not want to complicate her short life with a serious relationship, she just wanted to live.

Uncle Gaston hosted a dinner attended by several single and wealthy men. The oldest and richest was Viscount de Peistre. Without hesitation, he invited Lilian to become his kept woman and live in an apartment on Place Vendôme. Lilian treated the “exhibition of grooms” with “deadly irony.” She was indifferent to everything that these rich people considered important.

Lilian and Clerfay continued to meet. He showed her the best restaurants and the hottest cabarets in Paris. Lilian was delighted with everything, in this she was like a child. After some time, the girl rented a room at the Ritz Hotel, where Clerfay also lived. He told her that during the war the Germans and those who served them lived in this hotel. Brother Clerfe also lived there, while he himself rotted in a prisoner of war camp.

Soon they went to Sicily, where the Targa Florio races were held. He settled Lillian with a friend who owned a fleet of fishing boats and a villa on the seashore. The choice of Clerfay was not accidental: the dreamy and fat rich man Levalli was not a Don Juan. Lilian did not see Clerfay for days, but the wind constantly brought to her the roar of engines, and she felt that he was always nearby.

Lillian watched the races from the stands. “She had come into contact with death too long and too closely,” so “this game with fire seemed obscene to her,” and at the same time she found something of childhood games in racing. Clerfay injured his shoulder but had to finish the race. Now Lillian almost hated him for loving him too much. By the end of the race, she knew that she would leave him.

Clerfay invited Lilian to live in Palermo until his shoulder healed, and then slowly move across Europe following the spring. Lilian refused - “she had a completely different attitude towards time than people who were to live for many more years.” She wanted to be alone and promised Clerfay to wait for him in Paris. Arriving in Rome, Lilian unexpectedly decided to go to Venice. The pervasive dampness of this city provoked an increase in the disease. Lillian started bleeding. She lay in bed for a week without telling Clerfay. Lillian didn't want him to see her sick.

Not finding Lilian either in Paris or in the Alpine sanatorium, “Clerfay began to think that she had abandoned him.” He tried to forget Lillian and find solace in his former amusements, but at the same time it seemed to him “that he was plunging into something sticky, like glue.” Having given up these attempts, Clerfe fell into apathy. Having lost Lillian, “he lost something in himself.” At this time, he finally broke up with Lydia Morelli. The former mistress realized that Clerfe was “ripe for marriage.” He had no idea that Liliane had returned to Paris and settled back into the Hotel Bisson, as if she had returned to the old harbor after a severe storm. Now Lillian “knew that there was no salvation for her.” Immediately after her return, she met with Uncle Gaston, who reproached her for her wastefulness and invited her to live with him. Lillian never told him about the illness.

Clerfe saw her in the hotel window, accidentally passing by. Lilian hid the exacerbation of tuberculosis from him, saying that she just wanted to live in Venice and had a little cold. Clerfay didn't believe her. Fearing that she would disappear again, he proposed to her. The company with which Clerfay signed a contract invited him to start selling cars in the Toulouse district. Lilian did not refuse him, but felt that Clerfe had changed - he had a future, while she did not have one at all. She asked to wait until next year, knowing that by then she would be gone.

That evening Clerfay brought Liliane to the hotel early. He became caring, making sure that the girl did not catch a cold, which made her very angry. Soon Clerfay left for the thousand-mile race in Brescia. This time Lillian did not go with him. She followed the races on the radio. And these races ended and began in Brescia. To Lilian it seemed as pointless as running in a circle: to escape from Brescia at an incredible speed, only to return there in a few hours. Lilian thought that life was like a race from Brescia to Brescia. Only in the sanatorium everything is different: there people fight for every breath. Remembering the sanatorium, she decided to call Holman. He said that Boris Volkov no longer comes. Holman met him a few weeks ago - he was walking with his shepherd. Apparently, everything was fine with Boris.

Immediately after the race, Clerfay took Lilian to the Riviera, where he had a small abandoned house. Clerfe planned to restore the house with the royalties from the next races and live in it after his wedding to Lilian. He did not understand that Lillian did not have time to build family happiness. If she had thought about the future, she would have stayed in the sanatorium, extending her life day after day. “The only thing Lilian was afraid of was being captured by everyday life,” so Clerfe’s concern, his questions about her well-being, terribly disappointed and irritated her.

That same evening they went to the casino. There, from an acquaintance, Lilian learned that Boris Volkov had once been here. He came before the war with one of the most beautiful women in Europe and broke the bank playing roulette. In addition, it turned out that Volkov participated in auto racing as an amateur. Lilian was surprised - she didn’t know Boris like that. Secretly jealous of Volkov, Clerfe tried to repeat his achievement and lost a large sum. He regretted losing money, something he had never done before. Lilian did not want to live in the prison created by Clerfay's love. She had one remedy - to run away.

The race in Monte Carlo, the biggest competition of the year, was approaching. Clerfay was missing in training again. Now love seemed to Lilian like an endlessly long corridor. She only had a few months to live, and she didn't want to walk down that corridor. Deciding to leave, Lilian felt a “small, sharp happiness” and a long-lost tenderness for Clerfay.

The race track ran right through the city streets and was replete with sharp turns. Lillian sat in the stands, watching the cars go lap after lap. On the fortieth lap she decided to leave. Lilian had already bought a ticket to Türich. The train left the day after tomorrow, just when Clerfe was supposed to fly to Rome. Clerfay was second. Suddenly the leading car crossed the road and flooded the highway with oil. Unable to avoid the puddle, Clerfe hesitated, and then the car following behind crushed his car. Clerfay's chest was crushed. Lillian heard about this as she was already descending from the stands. She rushed to the hospital. Clerfe did not live to see the operation. He died without regaining consciousness.

The next day, Sister Clerfay, a dry and very practical lady, arrived in Monte Carlo. She did not communicate with her brother, who hated her. She arrived after learning about Clerfe's death and smelling the smell of money. It soon turned out that Clerfay bequeathed a house on the Riviera to Lilian. The sister tried to force the girl to sign a waiver of the will, but she kicked the vixen out of her room.

A day later, Lilian was leaving. All this time the girl was in prostration. It seemed unfair to her that Clerfe died before her. Lillian had a strange feeling that she was taking someone else's place. Plucking up courage, she called Boris. An unfamiliar female voice said that he was not there. Lillian decided that he, too, had died.

Boris found the girl at the station. He heard about the death of Clerfe and immediately went for Lilian. Now she understood that there were no places and things for which it was worth throwing away your life. Boris had known this for a long time. He also ran away from the disease, and also returned. Lillian was accepted into Montana. On the mountain road leading to the sanatorium they met Holman. He recovered and was taken to replace Clerfe.

Lillian died of hemorrhage six weeks after arriving at the sanatorium. Boris looked at her beautiful, calm face and thought “that she was happy, as happy as a person can be.”

"Life on Borrow" talks about the "lost generation", the main theme of Remarque, running through all of his major works. The echo of war that sounds in each of the heroes who survived this war in one way or another. Echoes of the past haunt the heroes even now, each of whom has their own destiny. So Clerfay does auto racing in pursuit of adrenaline. Boris Volkov, who separated from his native country, lives in exile. Liliane Dunkirk, a twenty-four-year-old Belgian woman, has been sick with tuberculosis for a long time.
The action begins on an Alpine road, where Clerfay, heading to his old friend Holman at the Montana sanatorium, frightens the horse-drawn carriage carrying the young girl Lilian Dunkirk with the roar of the engine. The race car driver tries to help the driver, but he sharply refuses. The crew was managed by Boris Volkov, who immediately took a dislike to Clerfay. Boris and Lilian are united by a fatal illness that brought them together in Montana, where they have been living for several years.
Clerfay gets to the sanatorium. Here he is talking to Holman. Friends share stories with each other about their current lives. Thus, Holman talks about life within the walls of the sanatorium, which looks extremely attractive to an outsider, but the guests among themselves speak of it as nothing less than a prison. Leaving Montana is extremely dangerous for them; any cold can lead to death.
Holman, in the recent past, was a racer like Clerfay, so he asks his friend about his current profession. Clerfay deliberately lies about being unsuccessful in his endeavors, because... knows it will bring some joy to Holman. In fact, Clerfay is at the peak of his career.
Lillian joins the conversation. Together, all three decide, despite the prohibitions, to go to the Palace Bar, located nearby. A conversation takes place between Lilian and Clerfe about life and death. Lillian lost her friend Agnes Somerville, who lived with her in the sanatorium, and now death seems more real to her than ever.
Clerfay believes that the profession of a racer is akin to a fatal disease, because... These are games with death and any day can be the last. Quite recently he lost his workmate, but in this case he considers his death rather a deliverance, because... had he remained alive, betrayal and shame would have awaited him, as the husband of an unfaithful wife. Clerfay knows that his wife cheated on his friend, and after he had an accident and lost his leg, she did not even visit him. After the death of the racer, the widow did not care about anything except the money owed to her.
Lillian categorically disagrees with this, considering any life, even the most miserable one, is better than death. Boris appears and persuades Lillian to return to Montana.
After parting, Clerfay comes across a local crematorium and, in a shop nearby, buys orchids for Lilian. Having received the flowers, the girl recognizes them as the ones she bought for Agnes’s funeral. Clerfay guesses that the crematorium employees resell funeral flowers.
An old resident of the sanatorium, Richter, is a big fan of chess games. He cannot find a partner to play with because... his friend, the Frenchman Rainier, has passed away, but no one tells him about this, so as not to injure him.
Some time later, he invites Lillian to leave the sanatorium and go with him to Paris. Clerfay is not entirely serious, but Lilian is determined. The girl decided that it was better to live one very short life in Paris than to remain within the walls of a sanatorium for a long time.
Doctors and Volkov dissuade Lillian, but to no avail. The girl goes out into the big world. During a train ride, she and Clerfe find themselves in heavy fog and rain, which delights her.
Upon arrival in the capital of France, the girl meets with her father's brother in order to receive the money due to her. The old man fears that she will squander all the money on useless things, but Lillian gets her way. The first serious purchase is beautiful evening dresses.
Gaston, Lilian's uncle criticizes her excessive spending, at a table in a restaurant he tells her about the benefits of dietary food for a girl in her condition, but she refuses to listen. Lillian felt truly happy. She hangs the purchased outfits around the room at night. Luxurious things help her escape from reality.
Clerfay considers Lilian to be a very young, capricious teenager. For two weeks he needs to go to Italy, where he reconnects with Lidia Morelli, with whom they were lovers. Returning to Paris with Lydia, the race car driver does not recognize yesterday’s girl, who has turned into a wealthy girl in the capital. Having a mistress does not make her jealous. Life is too short to waste it on stupid grievances, so Lillian reasons.
Clerfay confesses his love to a young Belgian woman. They spend that night together in Lilian's hotel room. A relationship begins between the young people.
Gaston throws a reception in honor of Lilian, the purpose of which is to match the girl with a rich groom. He is interested in the union of a young relative and the Viscount de Pestres. But she is not interested in this, she is not going to marry for convenience, because... she needs emotions here and now. We need to live.
Together with Clerfe, she goes to Sicily, to the site of the upcoming races. During the race, Clerfay loses a tire, the car skids and the driver gets a dislocated arm. He cannot continue the race. The young man who replaced him is also unable to complete the race due to deteriorating condition. There is one lap left until the finish. Clerfay decides to continue the competition with a sore arm. Lillian is extremely indignant at this reckless decision.
The girl goes to Italy on her own, without telling Clerfay about it. There she visits the theater, where she starts bleeding. The girl is forced to spend the next seven days in a hotel. Clerfe does not know about the whereabouts of his beloved, he is visited by thoughts that she has abandoned him.
Upon returning to Paris, Lilian lives alone for several days, not showing herself to anyone. She hopes to regain her strength so that the attack of the disease goes unnoticed. Finally she visits Uncle Gasson to get more money.
Finally, Clerfay finds her at the Relay Bisson Hotel. He is happy to meet and offers her his hand and heart. She asks him to wait about a year, realizing that she will not live this period. A week later, Clerfay goes to a thousand-mile race in Italy. He sends a telegram to Lillian from the races. For the first time, the girl begins to think about the correctness of her decision to leave the sanatorium. From a phone call, she learns that Clerfe came to the finish line sixth out of a large number of participants.
Together they visit the racing driver's villa, but Lilian is bored there. They play roulette at the local casino. The girl learns that Boris Volkov visited this place before the war and won by betting on “thirteen black.” She makes the same bet, which causes jealousy on the part of Clerfay.
The theme of death awaiting a person does not let her go. She doesn't understand why young men like Clerfay risk their lives to race. Quarrels occur between lovers, but they are always followed by reconciliation. The girl has been sick for some time, but hides it. Soon there will be a race in Monte Carlo and Lilian decides to leave Clerfay at the end.
Clerfay continues to perform. During a race in Monte Carlo, he crashes to his death. Lilian witnesses how the racer's sister, who arrived after her brother's death, tries to benefit financially from what happened.
Lilian is taken to Montana by Boris Volkov, who arrived as soon as he learned about what had happened. On the way to the sanatorium, they meet Holman, who pulled out a truly lucky ticket, having recovered from his illness. The former patient intends to take Clerfay's vacant position.
After spending six weeks in a sanatorium, Lilian Duncan dies.

The novel was first published in 1959 in the illustrated edition “Crystal” as a “novel with a continuation.” In 1961, after revisions and editing by the author, a longer version of the novel was published in an American translation, but under the title “Heaven has no favorites.” The German version of the novel, Der Himmel kennt keine Gunstlinge, was a great success among readers in Germany, but received negative criticism. Remarque was accused of sentimentality and lack of style. And yet, despite all the complaints and comments, the same critics could not help but note that “the novel is exciting and impossible to tear yourself away from.” Early 50s. Race car driver Klerfe comes to visit his old friend at the Montana sanatorium. There he meets a terminally ill girl, Lillian. Tired of the strict rules of the sanatorium, of routine and monotony, she decides to run away with Clarfe to where there is another life, a life that speaks the language of books, paintings and music, a life that beckons and arouses anxiety. Both fugitives, despite all their differences, have one thing in common - a lack of confidence in the future. Clairefe lives from race to race, and Lilian knows that her disease is progressing and she has very little time left to live. Their romance is developing very rapidly, they love each other on the verge of doom, as only people can love, whose every step is accompanied by the shadow of death... The publication was carried out within the framework of an agreement with the Late Paulette Remarque Foundation c/o Morbooks Literary Agency and Synopsis Literary Agency © E. Remarque (heirs) © translation by L. Chernaya ©&? IP Vorobiev V.A. 2013 ©&? ID UNION 2013 Publication producer: Vladimir Vorobyov

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Daria Surda (Smirnova)

“Life on Borrow” - plot

"Life on Borrow" by Remarque begins with the race car driver Clerfe coming to a sanatorium for pulmonary patients to visit his friend and racing colleague. During his visit, Clerfay meets a woman, Liliane, suffering from tuberculosis, who has very little time left to live. They become imbued with mutual sympathy and Lilian leaves the sanatorium to have time to see life and live. They go to Paris and begin to lead the lifestyle that Lilian likes: she sews clothes, they visit restaurants, museums, travel, etc. Slowly Clerfe falls in love with her and wants to keep her at any cost, and Lilian strives to live every The day is full, with greed. Lillian tries to get more from a life that she has not seen, but she cannot become attached to anything and little makes her happy. Clerfe proposes marriage to her, but cannot interest her in their future family life, since Lilian has no future.

In the end, Liliane agrees to marry Clerfay, planning to escape from him while he is busy, but her plans were not destined to come true, as during one of the races, Clerfay has an accident and dies from his injuries. Soon after this, Boris Volkov, another patient of the pulmonary sanatorium, who loves Lilian dearly, comes to Lilian and takes her back to the sanatorium, since Lilian realized that the life she tried to lead outside the sanatorium is someone else's, not hers. 6 weeks after returning, Lillian dies.

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Reviews of the book “Life on Borrow”

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Anna M

It is worth cherishing every day, every moment!

Throughout our lives, we experience a great thirst for something, and when we achieve it, the passion to get it fades away, but something new appears and again this passion consumes us. If you look carefully, take a closer look... we have everything, the only thing left for us is to just see.

The book "Life on Borrow" is written beautifully and elegantly. There are many books with a similar plot... the sick hero (inya) in his last days wants to know the full value of life and blah blah blah...

I believe that you don’t need to be sick at all, to count down your days of existence, in order to begin to really understand how important it is to live and life itself!

I like Remarque and his writing style! We don’t know when death will express a desire to visit us, life is fleeting and everyone will agree with me that it’s not worth wasting your time! This is how life is now, we must live today in spite of everything!

What else to add, I think that’s enough.

I recommend reading it!))

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1 / 0

Ira

A book that will make you reevaluate your life, love it, and enjoy every moment, every moment to the fullest.

As happens in most cases, we live an ordinary life, we are in a hurry somewhere, living our whole lives day after day, without noticing that time is passing, and we have not managed to do anything. Erich Remarque told us an incredibly touching, sad, heartbreaking story that made us look at life from a completely different perspective. The author portrayed the main characters well, so that we managed to fall in love with them, began to worry about them and at the same time received inspiration from them. Liliana is the main character of the novel, a kind, beautiful girl. But Liliana suffers from a serious incurable disease - tuberculosis. Despite this, she strives to enjoy life, looks at everything with a positive attitude, and does not fall into despair. Liliana's lover, Clerf, is the complete opposite of the main character. He has every opportunity to live life to the fullest and enjoy every moment, which Liliana does not have. But Klerf has long lost all interest in everything that happens; life seems to him a boring and ordinary pastime.

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