The Last of the Just [Paperback]

Andre Schwarz-Bart (Author), Stephen Becker (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1973

According to Jewish tradition, 36 "just men" are born in every generation to take the burden of the world's suffering upon themselves. This book tells the story of two Jews, divided by eight centuries, who are persecuted to death, becoming part of the catastrophic history of the Jewish people.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Schwarz-Bart's 1959 novel is a chronicle of Jewish persecution beginning in England in 1105 and ending with the Holocaust. This book was a huge hit when first released, eventually being translated into several languages. It is both a historical document and a compelling piece of fiction.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

"Has the inspiration, the strength and the poetic feeling to make it unique."  -- Sunday Times --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (September 1, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689703651
• ISBN-13: 978-0689703652
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,508,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Powerful Book!!!, April 9, 2003

By 

Samuel W. Harnish, Jr. - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last of the Just (Paperback)

OK, you've read many holocaust books, probably seen several movies, been there, done that.

This one is different, and different in so many ways that you'll never believe you've read one before.

Of course there are not many that start the story in 1105, that's different. There are not many that try to fix the story in a context that is greater than the ending. This one does that, and makes it so strong that you can not put it down.

First the context, the myth if you will. There are in the world 36 `just men' that take on the suffering of the world, that are the reasons God allows the world to continue. There are among these men, some number of `unknown just' who see the world differently from most of us. That when one of these `unknown just' dies his soul is so cold that God must hold him in his fingers for a thousand years so that he can open to paradise.

Ernie Levy is one of those men. A thousand years of history, two thousand years of suffering are all concentrated in the story of one boy, the movement of a family from Poland, to Germany, to France, to extermination. It's all so simple. It's all so wonderfully told. The story of a people, the story of a family, the story of a man, the story of the twentieth century, all in so few pages.

I hope you'll take the time to read it.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A deeply moving and indelible picture of the Holocaust, December 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Last of the Just (Hardcover)

Difficult to describe and impossible to forget, this book takes us out of whatever 'normal' world we inhabit and casts us into the horror of the Nazi's 'final solution'. The story of a young Jewish boy - the 'last of the Just' - is so powerful, so full of pain and confusion, so beautifully written, so honestly realized, that the reader will never be able to forget it. The last section alone, where the names of all the death camps are listed, in the midst of a kind of elegy, is among the most moving pieces of prose I have ever read.

Read this book. It will change you and stay with you when everything else you have read about the holocaust is forgotten.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Devastating, transcending, unspeakably beautiful..., March 14, 2002

By 

"nancybee" (Cleveland, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last of the Just (Paperback)

...and that's no exaggeration.
This was assigned reading for a class on the Holocaust that I took as an elective in college many moons ago. Once I got around to reading it (near the end of the semester, of course), I was completely unable to put it down. I started it on Good Friday and read straight through the weekend. It shattered me. I was flat out weeping as I read that final page late on Easter Sunday (which, as a non-Jew, spun me around into a whole different perspective). I've been teary-eyed over a good book or two, but I had never read (nor have I since) any book that moved or affected me so profoundly.

I find it hard to string together an adequate sentence to describe this book. I can only come up with images...vast, timeless, dream-like, sometimes surreal, but totally human and earthbound at the same time. Gently funny, lush, warm and tender, fluid, truly poetic, painful, pure, sacred, prayer-like. Schwarz-Bart is a master, a pied piper, and this book is a piece of literary art. Five stars just doesn't cover it.