"The author...has built knowledge into artistic fiction."--The New York Times Book Review
Elisha is a young Jewish man, a Holocaust survivor, and an Israeli freedom fighter in British-controlled Palestine; John Dawson is the captured English officer he will murder at dawn in retribution for the British execution of a fellow freedom fighter. The night-long wait for morning and death provides Dawn, Elie Wiesel's ever more timely novel, with its harrowingly taut, hour-by-hour narrative. Caught between the manifold horrors of the past and the troubling dilemmas of the present, Elisha wrestles with guilt, ghosts, and ultimately God as he waits for the appointed hour and his act of assassination. Dawn is an eloquent meditation on the compromises, justifications, and sacrifices that human beings make when they murder other human beings.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Dawn is a good read:
Wiesel's Dawn is a heart wrenching book about an Israeli freedom fighter, just about a year after the holocaust, of which the man was involved with, that is forced to execute a British officer. The book is about the previous day, and that night leading up to the execution at dawn. The man is confronted by ghosts of his past telling him that if he kills the man, that he invariably labels everyone he has ever known, or loved as a murderer also. The man has to make the decision whether to execute the man, or... more info
Trilogy...backwards!:
I have read Night and Dawn, and I am awaiting the arrival of Day. Dawn is ok. I can't possibly say it's bad. It's beautifully written, as all of Wiesel's works, but it is more of a character study than a story. It's an easy read, all three books are, they're very short, but very interesting from a historical standpoint, also. I liked Night so much that Dawn didn't quite satisfy me. I have not yet read Day, also called The Accident, but I have a feeling that it will not compare to Night, just as Dawn fell... more info
Excellent thinking book & totally different from Night:
First off, this is not Night 2. I naively expected that when publisher's try to frame them as part of a 'trilogy'. Night is absolutely and without bar one of the most fantastic books I have read in my life. This is not just another chapter of that. And it is not a sequel. It is an incredibly profound, and beautifully written meditation on the journey of many Holocaust survivors -- but not his. This is a work of complete fiction. Many survivors went to Palestine, and fought the British (not the Arabs)... more info
In just one word? Terrorism:
A survivor of this becomes a proponent for that. . .by any means necessary. Unfortunately, Ellie Wiesel's fictional "Dawn" is all too true; all too often repeated.
Terrorized as a Jew by Nazis in World War II, Elisha now terrorizes as a Jew for a free Palestine.
Swap out the name of the Holocast survived and the name of the cause proposed and you have the skeleton of all political or religious terrorism. The terrorists will always be with us. . .they usually will win. . .the body count will... more info
