Night

For once, I am actually a little lost for words. This book touched me in a way that I was not expecting. I knew that it would be poignant due to nature of the material, but my heart is still breaking a little, even now as I write this. Elie Wiesel was a teenage boy when he went into the concentration camps and came out a religiously shaken young man who seemed to be lost in the aftermath of one of the most devastating events to have ever happened in the 20th century.

Written in Yiddish, his loving wife has translated this edition of the retelling of what he went through that night. As I read the powerful prose, I was pulled in, my heart racing and spirit breaking as I experienced what he experienced. The denial in the beginning seemed perfectly natural and then as the reality of the situation set in, I felt his loss of hope and all out despair with how God could have left them to be tortured like this.

There were several passages in this book that were very hard for me to accept as reality, especially being a mother. I don't know if I would have had the same courage and drive to survive that Elie had during this time. At some point long term survival probably would drop from reality and just surviving the night would have become my main goal.

This book is just simply terrifying that this type of event happened in the last 100 years. It was inhumane. It was maddening that individuals in that part of the world believed that this was acceptable to do to a nation of people. If you were to go to some places in Germany, there would still be surviving war criminals that have been allowed to live happy lives with families and freedom. How could this be allowed?

Elie was right when he said that we are forgetting what these individuals have gone through. Their suffering and voices should not remain silent any longer. Just by having wrote this book, he has given dignity back to those that survived and to those that perished during the years of Hitler's reign.

I would recommend this book to anyone to read. It puts a new perspective on life the moment you read that first page in the prologue. This novel does not hold many things back, so those of you that are weak of heart may not wish to read this for I believe that it will stick with you for the rest of your life.

Rating: 5 out 5 stars

This book was purchased at a local store; I was not asked to review this book.