Dawn

"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.
Elie Wiesel is the author of more than forty internationally acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction. He has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America Congressional Gold Medal, the French Legion of Honor, and, in 1986, the Nobel Peace Prize. He is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and University Professor at Boston University. "Dawn," the second book in Elie Wiesel's masterful Night trilogy, which begins with the unforgettable memoir "Night "and concludes with the acclaimed novel "Day" (previously titled "The Accident"), is a haunting meditation on guilt, moral ambiguity, and the justification man makes for the act of murder. Elisha, a young Holocaust survivor now living as a terrorist in British-controlled Palestine, awaits dawn, when he has been ordered to kill a captive English officer. 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 awaits the appointed hour for his act of assassination. A new preface by the author reflects on the enduring questions raised in Dawn and on the novel's place in this powerful trilogy. "The anguish and loss of the moral Jew who has placed himself on the other side of the gun"--"Commentary
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"Shines gemlike with delicate writing."--"Saturday Review"