La Nuit

Elie Wiesel, then a teenager in the Jewish community of Sighet, recalls how the first warnings were ignored until the ghetto was set up and the deportations began in the spring of 1944. The book follows him and his father through Birkenau, Auschwitz, Buna and the forced winter march to Buchenwald, where each day is a matter of food, work and chance. Wiesel records the hanging of a child, the nights, and the loss of his belief in a just God, in a spare style that keeps to what he saw.

It is meant for readers ready to confront a firsthand account of the camps, and it is often the first text they read about the subject. It is brief, plain and carries its weight without commentary.

Deep, inward-looking and contemplative; a moderate read.

Best for readers like The Mindful Reader. Which reader are you?