Night (The Night Trilogy #1) by Elie Wiesel, Marion Wiesel Published by Hill and Wang on January 16th 2006
Pages: 120
Goodreads
Born into a Jewish ghetto in Hungary, as a child, Elie Wiesel was sent to the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. This is his account of that atrocity: the ever-increasing horrors he endured, the loss of his family and his struggle to survive in a world that stripped him of humanity, dignity and faith. Describing in simple terms the tragic murder of a people from a survivor's perspective, Night is among the most personal, intimate and poignant of all accounts of the Holocaust. A compelling consideration of the darkest side of human nature and the enduring power of hope, it remains one of the most important works of the twentieth century.
New translation by Marion Wiesel, with a new introduction by Elie Wiesel.
I am a little embarrassed to say that this has been sitting in my TBR pile since 2006. I picked it up when Oprah announced her Oprah Selection and this was book 55. Not sure why I didn’t read it then but I think at the time I was just collecting books and not reading them. But 12 years later I am happy to say that I did haul this off my TBR pile and I read it.
After reading it I have to admit that I didn’t realize it was a trilogy. Here are the other books in the series:
I did manage to pick up these two with a gift card and plan on reading them this month so be sure to come back and check out my reviews for them.
I had no idea what I was going to read when I started this book because I avoided reading the back cover and I have to say that I am happy I didn’t read it because I don’t know if I would have read it otherwise or at least not at this point.
If your a reader of my blog you know that I don’t read a lot of non fiction so this is a first for me but hopefully not the last.
Night is a true story of what Elie endured during the Holocaust and his life at a concentration camp. This was definitely not a light read and at times I had to put the book down because I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to live through that not knowing what was going to happen to you. It makes you wonder how a group of people literally could hate another group of people and think it was perfectly fine to kill them and treat them like they were nothing. It breaks my heart. Nothing those people did can justify why they needed to kill innocent people.
I struggled with a lot in this book and I think its was just wondering how people could do this to another living person. I think I went through a wide range of emotions at all the groups invovled. How could no one stand up for these people?
Elie realized at the age of 15 that he had to lie about his age in order to survive and you can see him struggle and survive all the way through the book. He witnessed so much that no one should have to witness or endure. You could see the determination in Elie and his determination not to give up. I am happy that Elie shared his story with the world as it needed to be told.
Elie was one of the few survivors of the Holocaust. His tale is gripping and heart breaking and one everyone should read. I have put this back on my book case to eventually reread one day or even if my son wants to read it its there for him to do so. This is one book that will stay with you.