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17th out of 273 books
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Dawn (Night #2)
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, ...more
Paperback, 81 pages
Published
March 21st 2006
by Hill and Wang
(first published 1960)
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Dawn is a beautifully written but disturbing novel about an Israeli terrorist waiting to assassinate a British officer in retaliation for the hanging of an Israeli. This novel evokes a great deal of thought about stopping violence with violence and hate with hate. Reflecting on the persecution the Jews have suffered, the young assassin Elisha says: "Now our only chance lies in hating you, in learning the necessity of the art of hate." However, the novel seems ultimately to say that hat...more
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This book is very different from anything else I've read. It's the follow up to Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, but this time the story is fictional. Because it's fictional, right off the bat it's easier to digest than Night. It revolves around a Holocaust survivor's morals and way of thinking after he becomes part of the Jewish Resistance in Palestine and is ordered to execute a British soldier. Can the victim ever become the murderer? Do the crimes of others make it okay for you to commit the...more
I wouldn't have enjoyed this as much without reading Night first - even though it's not a sequel.
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Recommends it for:
people who like coming-of-age stories
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DAWN is an interesting companion piece to NIGHT even if it wasn't necessarily intended to be (but given their titles, you have to think there is some correlation). Elie Wiesel again provides a stark and direct style and his incorporation of supernatural elements, imagined or real, while at times confusing, is especially powerful. It is indeed not a frequently-seen literary phenomenon to see Jews "on the other side of the gun," as it were. A coming-of-age story of a slightly differen...more
This book came to me by accident. I was visiting the library at Anatolia High School in Thessaloniki one day and, as is occasionally the case, there was a pile of books on a table outside the door - books that had been purged from the collection, free for the taking. I am wary of such books, as they are often not worth the trouble, either because they are falling apart, or because they are lousy books. But this one caught my eye because I had heard of one of Elie Wiesel's other books, "N...more
A Jewish Terrorist
Rachel Moore
Dawn, a World War Two story by Elie Wiesel, makes the reader feel what it’s like knowing that you are about to become a drastically different person. Wiesel creates the feeling that you are there with him, waiting to execute the man in the basement. In the story, 18-year-old Elie Wiesel is given orders to execute a British officer that had been taken hostage by the Jewish terrorist gang he is a part of. John Dawson, the officer, patiently awai...more
Dawn is the second book in Elie Weisel's trilogy (after Night.) However, it is not really a sequel, as Night is a memoir and Dawn is fiction.
Dawn is about Elisha, a Holocaust survivor. After the war, he moves to the British Mandate of Palestine and joins a terrorist group determined to purge the British from the area. One night, Elisha is told he must execute British soldier. The novel is about Elisha dealing with his own turmoil.
I recall reading shortly after I completed...more
Dawn is about Elisha, a Holocaust survivor. After the war, he moves to the British Mandate of Palestine and joins a terrorist group determined to purge the British from the area. One night, Elisha is told he must execute British soldier. The novel is about Elisha dealing with his own turmoil.
I recall reading shortly after I completed...more
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I read Night 15 years ago (yow that was awhile ago) in high school and had high expectations for Dawn even though I recalled it got disparaging remarks from instructors now that I think about it. Now I know why. Solid writing but seriously the dead come out to talk to the main character??? It's not a fantasy so why this great talk with the dead? If only life were that simple, to talk to the dead. I'd have a few words to say to my dead that's for sure. Still some beautiful lines from the be...more
I have taught Night for years, and the simple power of Wiesel's bleak words from his autobiography has resonated within me. Dawn is not, as I was expecting, part II of Wiesel's autobiography -- it is, instead a work of fiction set in Palestine immediately following the end of the war in Europe.
It's fictional, but not to say uninformed by Weisel's own life. There are many similarities - the narrator, Elisha, was 12 years old when the war interrupted his life. Like Wiesel, Elisha is a ...more
It's fictional, but not to say uninformed by Weisel's own life. There are many similarities - the narrator, Elisha, was 12 years old when the war interrupted his life. Like Wiesel, Elisha is a ...more
Just like 'Night', I read this book in one sitting. It's captivating and brilliantly written. Wiesel immediately sets the almost surreal and stifling tone that pervades throughout and draws the reader into the mind of a man pondering the execution he must carry out at dawn. Everything, all thoughts, emotions, images are so detailed and vividly describe the bleak landscape that forms the conscious and mind of a soon to-be murderer. Similar to 'Night', 'Dawn' is written without hesitation or elabo...more
A simple story of a young Jewish freedom fighter, before the state of Israel, who is required to execute a British soldier. At the time, Palestine was occupied by the British army. The Jewish soldier meditates about patriotism and honor and duty and truth when he is forced to murder a stranger. It would be good if todays Israelis could read this story and replace the British soldier with a Palestinian arab.
I will be frank, this was not one of the most incredible books I've ever read. I was not drawn into its pages like I have been with other novels, nor did I find its conclusion quite as revealing of Wiesel's ability to write as Night had shown. However, one simple page of this book, page four if I remember correctly, has forever etched itself into my memory. "Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and dreaming. At night everything is more intense, more true. The echo o...more
"Dawn" is a simple, honest story unveiled over a 24 hour period by a young Zionist (and terrorist), who is charged to execute a British officer. His new ordeal follows closely after his survival of the WWII horrors as Israel struggles during its rebirth as a nation. Terrorism always seems to precede the celebrated "Independence Day" of a nation, making it a matter of perspective. Review the U.S. history post 1776-1783. There were a lot of acts of retribution in our great ...more
Incredibly relevant. While a historical novel, in our post-9/11 world that's cluttered with arrogance and self-righteous politics, this should be required reading. Dawn is unnerving; it shakes you to the core. The lines between "us" and "them" are blurred and the reader cannot possibly walk away viewing the world through the same narrow lens they came in with. Read it.
So much anguish in this book..... Wiesel makes us look at what happens to the person who becomes as his torturers. The author says in the preface, "This tale about despair becomes a story against despair." In that light, it seems to fall short of actually giving hope, which is an opposite of despair, or of offering redemption; the life of Elisha, the main character, does not offer us an example of hope. The book does force the reader to personalize war/killing and grapple with the ...more
Dawn was about a Holocaust survivor named Elisha who after the war, he moves to the Palestine, then under British control and joins a terrorist group determined and committed to drive the British out from Palestine. One night, Elisha was told that he had to execute a British officer at dawn, and the story talks about Elisha struggles with himself as to if he should kill the officer or not.
I happened to like this book a lot, because it talked about the main character's past experiences in th...more
I happened to like this book a lot, because it talked about the main character's past experiences in th...more
I read Dawn along with Night and Day. Night is autobiographical and Dawn and Day are fiction based on his experiences. Read as a trilogy, Wiesel invites you in as a house invites the breeze to sweep through and breathe in every corner of its four walls.
The author is a Nobel-winning survivor of the Nazi concentration camps; his first book, "Night", is a personal account of those horrors. This short novel is set after the holocaust, when Jewish Zionist "freedom fighters" were struggling with the British over control of Palestine. A Jewish "terrorist" has been captured and sentenced to be hanged. The Jewish underground retaliates by capturing a British officer and announcing that he will be shot on the same morning. ...more
My book club liked Night so much that we decided to read the trilogy. Dawn was amazing. I could not put it down. A short, powerful novel that left me spellbound to the very end. An ending that was sad, and unavoidable?
I think I like this book as much as Night. I was confused at first, though, because I didn't realize that a group of Jews were the ones serving at terrorists. I guess that's part of World History that we don't learn much about.
Wiesel's passionate account of how man can go from victim to executioner gives the reader the powerful vision right down to the moment the bullet ends the prisioner's life. Sensationally commanding.
As ever... I like books about thinking. This is less commercial than Night (which I love, I mean no disrespect by saying that) and made a bigger impression on me.
Idk if it was because I read this in an extra-crowded airport, or if it's because this one is fiction, but this didn't engage me as much as Night did, although it did make me think. It's fairly plotless but cinematic and pretty contemplative - mostly it reminds me of Levinas and the idea of the face and the face-to-face encounter, which figured heavily in Dawn.
I found the bit with the dead people pretty cool, actually, though it was better executed by Terry Pratchett when he used the ...more
I found the bit with the dead people pretty cool, actually, though it was better executed by Terry Pratchett when he used the ...more
Glutton for punishment. Decided to finish the trilogy. Though this one is not as hard. Night was the hardest.
Finished the book. I think I get more from Night and The Accident or it could be I'm just getting burned out on this subject.
Troubling it is hard to like Wiesel at least with the little I have explored. I realized he has been through a horror that is impossible to imagine yet, his narrative can be troubling. This is difficult to write becasue it is so uncom...more
Finished the book. I think I get more from Night and The Accident or it could be I'm just getting burned out on this subject.
Troubling it is hard to like Wiesel at least with the little I have explored. I realized he has been through a horror that is impossible to imagine yet, his narrative can be troubling. This is difficult to write becasue it is so uncom...more
Just as Night is from the perspective of the victim, Dawn lets the reader see through the eyes of the perpetrator. Mr. Wiesel pulls the reader into the feelings, terrors, doubts and humanity of a person who is about to commit a heinous act against another human being in the name of war.
This is an intense and powerful read that left me to reflect on the atrocities that humans carry out on one another for causes they believe to be righteous. Mr. Wiesel's work leaves me realizing that...more
This is an intense and powerful read that left me to reflect on the atrocities that humans carry out on one another for causes they believe to be righteous. Mr. Wiesel's work leaves me realizing that...more
This book is interesting because it was written by the author of Night. However, although Dawn contains a similar subject line as Night (involving the Holocaust and terrorist acts), this story is entirely fiction, rather than Wiesel's personal experiences. After numerous trials and tribulations, the main character has an inner struggle between right and wrong, which becomes the main focus of the story. It is neat to see how Wiesel uses his own experiences to further create a fiction story abo...more
It's definitely a short read, but be sure to take your time to digest the layers of thought in every chapter. This is a good companion read for Night because at some point, the reader is bound to consider what goes on in the executioner's mind and not just the prisoner's. I suppose that's why Dawn is so relevant to today's events, as well.
This quote struck a chord with me: A man hates his enemy because he hates his own hate. . . . I hate him not because he's my enemy, not because h...more
This quote struck a chord with me: A man hates his enemy because he hates his own hate. . . . I hate him not because he's my enemy, not because h...more
Well... a heck of a lot better than Night. Night wasn't really an entertaining read. It wasn't supposed to be. But it wasn't really interesting either. Not beneficial, at least to me. I get that it was Elie Wiesel's story, and what really happened, but actually getting into it and caring was pretty hard. I don't know; I knew everyone was going to die, and that stopped me from getting to care about any of the characters.
Dawn is pretty much a debate as to whether or not a man is going ...more
Dawn is pretty much a debate as to whether or not a man is going ...more
Like many other review said, I initially thought this would be a sequel to "Night", but it isn't. However, "Dawn" is much more meaningful and better understood after having read "Night".
I'm having a hard time assessing how I feel (and thus, rating) this short novel. On one hand, I didn't really enjoy it and nearly quit reading it several times. It is 96 pages of being inside the head of a holocaust survivor who is soon-to-be a Zionist executioner of a...more
I'm having a hard time assessing how I feel (and thus, rating) this short novel. On one hand, I didn't really enjoy it and nearly quit reading it several times. It is 96 pages of being inside the head of a holocaust survivor who is soon-to-be a Zionist executioner of a...more
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Eliezer Wiesel is a Romania-born American novelist, political activist, and Holocaust survivor of Hungarian Jewish descent. He is the author of over 40 books, the best known of which is Night, a memoir that describes his experiences during the Holocaust and his imprisonment in several concentration camps.
Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. The Norwegian Nobel Committee ca...more
More about Elie Wiesel...
Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. The Norwegian Nobel Committee ca...more
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“Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and dreaming. At night everything is more intense, more true. The echo of words that have been spoken during the day takes on a new and deeper meaning. The tragedy of man is that he doesn't know how to distinguish between day and night. He says things at night that should only be said by day.”
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10 people liked it
“It was the beginning of the war. I was twelve years old, my parents were alive, and God still dwelt in our town.”
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5 people liked it
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