In this haunting, poetic, and very contemporary novel, Elie Wiesel introduces us to a young American-born man, the son of Holocaust survivors who yearns to penetrate his father's present silence and his secret past. It is a journey that will take him into the darkest hours of the Nazi terror, the ancient passages of the Talmud, and the office of a businessman in modern-day Germany...where his extraordinary fate awaits him.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The Fifth Son: A novel
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
“A work of passion and intelligence.”
—Chicago Tribune Book World
“Powerful [and] emotional.”
—Newsday
“A voice that is humanist and universal even as it is Jewish-minded and special . . . The author makes all of us ‘children’ of that generation.”
—The New York Times --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
—Chicago Tribune Book World
“Powerful [and] emotional.”
—Newsday
“A voice that is humanist and universal even as it is Jewish-minded and special . . . The author makes all of us ‘children’ of that generation.”
—The New York Times --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Original Language: French --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
Elie Wiesel is the author of more than forty books, including his unforgettable international best sellers Night and A Beggar in Jerusalem, winner of the Prix Médicis. He has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States Congressional Gold Medal, and the French Legion of Honor with the rank of Grand Cross. In 1986, he received the Nobel Peace Prize. He is Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and University Professor at Boston University.
Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Ties That Bind,
By
This review is from: The Fifth Son: A novel (Paperback)
As a Jew who survived the horrors of the Holocaust and life in a concentration camp, Elie Wiesel continuosly weaves these circumstances into his writings. In his works, he struggles to answer nearly impossible questions: why was it the fate of the Jews to die and why did they seem to accept that fate without a fight? "The Fifth Son" is a philosophical testament that seeks the answers to those questions, but also imaginatively examines the bond between father and son.As usual with Wiesel's novels, the reader is transported from the present to the past numerous times. We meet Rueven Tamiroff, a librarian in New York, a Jew who survived the Holocaust, and a father who cannot communicate with his unnamed son. His son desperately searches for the keys to his father's behavior, searching out stories of his past through every possible means. When he finally uncovers the truth about his father's past that is destroying his present reality, the son becomes obsessed with setting the record straight. The son's travels take him back to Germany and into the darkest recesses of encroaching madness. Wiesel's characters are vividly written, intelligent and fragile creatures. Wiesel takes his readers on a philosophical tour of Nazi torture and the revenge that assauged those Jews who survived WWII, as well as the guilt they felt for surviving when so many others did not. He speaks eloquently of the displacement of Jews who moved to America, as well as the anger of the younger German generation who are blamed for the sins of the older generation. The questions he raises are hard to answer; mainly because answers are yet to be found that would satisfy Wiesel.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Beautiful Read,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Fifth Son: A novel (Paperback)
Wiesel writes with the voice of a poet in this complex novel. It is told from the point of view of a Jewish young man who is trying desperately to understand his father, a Holocaust survivor. The young man, who is never named, wants to know everything he can about his father's experiences, and he slowly begins to gain information through his father's friends and through the letters he discovers, written by his father to his son Ariel. The book begins in a sequence that is confusing in the manner of a poem; it eventually becomes clearer as the themes of the book are developed. The young man is going to visit Germany to meet up with his father's past and somehow come to terms with it. He struggles with hate and forgiveness, and ultimately meets up with his father's past, and his own obsession, in a confrontation that tests his courage and helps him approach some sort of peace.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Easily the most powerful book I ever read,
A Kid's Review
This review is from: The Fifth Son: A novel (Paperback)
This book was amazing. It was written so well and told a story seldom written about. I have read many book about the Holocaust, but none dealt with the realities of being the child of a survivor. I cried for 200 of the 230 pages. This book has so much to teach, and was a very quick read. It is a must-read for anyone who knows Holocaust survivors or their children.
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