Two men wait through the night in British-controlled Palestine for dawn--and for death. One is a captured English officer. The other is Elisha, a young Israeli freedom fighter whose assignment is to kill the officer in reprisal for Britain's execution of a Jewish prisoner. Elisha's past is the nightmare memory of Nazi death camps. He is the only surviving member of his family. His future is a cherished dream of life in the promised homeland. But at daybreak his present will become the tortured reality of a principled man ordered to commit cold-blooded murder. Resonant with feeling, Dawn is an unforgettable journey into the human heart--and an eloquent statement about the moral basis of the new Israel."
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Bitter and non-redemptive, more wooden than "Night":
In "Dawn" Elie Wiesel extends the idea he began in "Night" that life and any positivity lost all meaning for him, and he tries to make up for it here by showing his tortured dilemma of having to execute an enemy soldier in Jerusalem. He ultimately sees the man's humanity but has to, or does, kill him anyway. The book could have been cut in half, and as such becomes a definite skimmer, with a million-too-many pointless ponderings. Overall it's an interesting story but not great, as it is not... more info
The mind of a virgin killer:
Elie Wiesel's second book, "Dawn," is a clear improvement over "Night." The former, rather than simply giving a gory firsthand account of history, explores the reasons behind the most terrible act of all - killing. However, this book is still written too tersely for my tastes. The first paragraph, for example, reads: Somewhere a child began to cry. In the house across the way an old woman closed the shutters. It was hot with all the heat of an autumn evening in Palestine. Much more interesting... more info
Dawn:
The book dawn is about Elie's life after the war and his stay in the concentration camps. He ends up being drawn to a Palestinian terrorist group. He joins this group and quickly learns their ways and becomes close friends with the leader and others. Elie ends up being told that he must a kill a man named John Dawson because their friend David Mosh was captured and is going to be hung at dawn. The group of Elie's friends and himself stay up until dawn to think about what is going to happen. I did not... more info
Better than "Night":
A wonderful book with great insight into the moral dilemnas of conflict and Israel's fight for independence.
