Book dossier

Arrival and Departure

by Arthur Koestler

**Arrival and Departure** (1943) is the third novel of Arthur Koestler’s trilogy concerning the conflict between morality and expedience (as described in the postscript to the novel’s 1966 Danube Edition). The first volume, *The Gladiators*, is about the subversion of the Spartacus revolt, and the second, *Darkness at Noon*, is the celebrated novel about the Soviet Show trials. *Arrival and Departure* was Koestler’s first full-length work in English, *The Gladiators* and *Darkness at Noon* having originally been written in German. It is often considered to be the weakest of the three. Reviewing the novel in December 1943 George Orwell called it notable "for what must be one of the most shocking descriptions of Nazi terrorism that have ever been written." (Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_and_Departure))