In episode 26 of the podcast, Ann and I discussed books that had been sitting patiently on our shelves and that we finally got around to reading. I gushed and raved over The Book Thief and mentioned that, even though I hadn’t read Night by Elie Wiesel, I imagined The Book Thief was similar in its power.
I was getting into bed the other evening and noticed Night sitting on the bookshelf near my nightstand. (Yes, I actually have a bookcase next to my bed – so why are there still piles on the floor?) Night has been sitting on that shelf since it was published in a new translation back in 2006. I decided the time was right to read the book.
I’m only half-way through, but it’s easy to see why this book has endured and has been so acclaimed. The book is shocking in its horrors, and rightly so. It brings the holocaust to life in a way I haven’t encountered since I visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. (An unbelievable experience. If you’ve never been, and the Holocaust is something you want to know more about, I highly recommend it.)
Here’s my question to all of you wonderful readers out there: What else should I read on this subject? I’ve read Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl and Maus. There’s also a new book out called Every Man Dies Alone that’s getting amazing reviews, so I may have to pick that one up too. What else?
[by the way, if you're interested in having Marcus Zusak, author of The Book Thief, speak to your book group, you can enter to win a call from him here!]
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JACK AND ROCHELLE: A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR OF LOVE AND RESISTANCE (Graywolf Press, 1995) is a must read for anyone interested in the holocaust; it’s a true, unsentimental tale of heroism and love.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a novel (for young adults) but is a fabulous story that will stay with you much like The Book Thief.
I have a bizarre fascination with Holocaust literature, here are some books I’ve recently read:
– The Holocaust by Bullets: A priest’s journey to uncover the truth behind the murder of 1.5 million Jews, by Patrick Desbois
– Road to Rescue: the untold story of Schindler’s List, by Mietek Pemper
– Small Miracles of the Holocaust, by Yitta Halberstam (hard to believe that there were happy stories to come out of the Holocaust, but they are described here)
As well, The Pianist by Wladislaw Szpillman and Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally are excellent books.
We (Schocken) have a book coming in September– The Girls of Room 28 by Hannalore Brenner–about a group of girls who lived through the Holocaust in Theresienstadt. It’s an amazing book and I met one of the women from it yesterday. Aharon Appelfeld is another author to check out.
I’m sure you’ve read it, but it’s a different twist: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon provides a pretty interesting description of that time period from an emigrated Jew who’s “fighting the war” from the States.
You’ve convinced me to start on Night. I’ve read around it for too long. I agree with Suzanne – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and I just finished Tamar about the Dutch resistance – a different perspective (also ya).
I haven’t read The Reader yet either, have you?
I, too, have a morbid fascination with the Holocaust, and these are some must-reads:
-I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson
-In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer by Irene Gut Opdyke (Wow is all I can say)
-The Seamstress by Sara Tuval Bernstein
-No Pretty Pictures by Anita Lobel (Amazing piece of writing)
-Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli (this one is YA, and is fiction, but is such an amazing read that you don’t want to miss it. And I think you may know the publisher for this one…;)
-Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman
I confess I haven’t read this one yet, but I have it and it is nearing the top of the teetering pile next to my bed. And I have heard amazing things about it.
Fill us on on what you read nest!
I really enjoyed Irene Nemirovsky’s Suite Francaise and also Louise Doughty’s Fires in the Dark. Both offered a vastly different perspective. By the way, I love your podcast.
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom- about a Dutch woman who hides a Jewish family in her house, it’s very good.
You’ve cited my other three favorite here: Maus, Night and Diary of Ann Frank.
I love the podcast, keep up the great posts! If only I could keep up with the books you’re recommending
I’m with you Krista — everytime I listen to the podcast or read a post I add several more books to my seemingly never ending list of books I want to read. This post especialy has me taking down a lot of books that sound great.
Wow, so many great books I’ve never read. I did love The Book Thief, too.
The book that taught me about the Holocaust when I was a kid was called Holocaust. It was a TV miniseries, and I’m not sure if the movie or the book came first. I’m not even sure how good it was.
Besides Anne Frank, I have to also mention Sophie’s Choice. Heartbreaking.
Thanks for all of these wonderful recommendations everyone.
I just saw a commercial for the DVD of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and it reminded me that I wanted to read the book.
Heather, I have read Kavalier and Clay… so great! I really want to read Yiddish Policeman’s Union too.
Nikki, I’ve heard great things about Zookeeper’s Wife, too, thanks for reminding me about it.
Thanks for all of the kind words about the blog and podcast, and I’m thrilled we’re helping add to your to-be-read piles. You’ve all added to mine with these comments!
Personally, I would stay away from Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Not an accurate story about the Holocaust. The way the writer has the camp laid out in the book is geographically wrong. If you’re going to write about real places and real events in history, you need to stick with the facts.
Read Primo Levi. He’s as good as Wiesel.
Also if you want hardcore stuff read Raul Hilberg’s The Destruction of the European Jews. This the definitive book on the Holocaust. Anyone who is serious about study the subject matter should own it and read it.
Other books to consider: Hannah Arendt’s A Banality of Evil; Martin Gilbert’s The Holocaust–this is a good narrative and not as hardcore as Destruction of the European Jews.
Michael,
If you haven’t read “Sophie’s Choice”… it’s a very powerful story!
Also, “The Reader” in book form works much better than the movie.
Think both have been mentioned already
but thought I’d add my 2 cents.
Lots of great recommendations here that I’ll have to check out.
I Loved The Book Thief and agree the Holocaust museum is so incredibly well done.
I suspect I’m going to get a lot of heat for this next recommendation, but here it is: “The Kindly Ones” by Jonathan Littell. It’s neither a victim narrative nor an apologia, but a historical fiction account of an SS officer who is something of a Zelig of war atrocities. The story is actually a retelling of Aeschuylus’ Oresteia and epic in scope in its own right. It comes in at close to 1000 pages, but the first reading goes very quickly. It’s in the re-reading that the power of the novel strikes the reader. Jonathan Littell spent years researching this book and it won the two big French literary prizes in 2006. It’s big. It’s controversial. It’s important.
The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman. I *have* read it, and aside from a few digressions, it’s excellent reading. I learned more about the war/holocaust reading that than I did in any of my history classes.
Also, stay away from Binjamin Wilkomirski’s “Fragments.” It’s a fake memoir. I’m sure that stuff like what it depicts happened to some children, but NOT to Wilkomirski, whose real name is Bruno Doessekker. I read it before it was exposed as a hoax, and was horrified. I was pretty angry to discover it was all a lie, years later.
A few years ago I read Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis. It depicts a man’s life in reverse, from death to birth, and during his prime he is a “doctor” in one of the Nazi death camps. It’s kind of a hard book to explain, but it simultaneously neutralizes the horror of war through the lens of linear time and also magnifies the atrocity of the things that were done by contrasting the rosy outcome of the doctor’s actions in the book with what the reader knows in real life. Not a “holocaust” book in the usual sense, but it has definitely stuck with me. it’s a quick, easy read and one that I think deserves consideration.
Thanks for keeping all of these great comments coming everyone! When they slow down to a trickle (I’m not asking anyone to stop – keep ‘em coming if you’ve got more) I’ll combine them into one big post.
A few thoughts:
The Reader is a great book. I read it when it first came out…
I’ve been hearing a lot about The Kindly Ones. Nothing wrong with controversy, just don’t think I’ll get to a book that big any time soon!
Time’s Arrow is an interesting choice DreamyBee. I tried to read that way back when it first came out and I couldn’t get into it. I’ll have to give it another try.
I’ve been thinking about reading The Zookeeper’s Wife for a long time and all of the raves here have moved it up the pile!
Tanya, have been reading lots of buzz about The Kindly Ones. I’m intrigued — will take a look.
I think Zookeeper’s Wife might be going on my pile, even though this is Michael’s request for recommendations.
You guys are fantastic! We now have 2 amazing lists of reading (dogs, holocaust). We will try to put each of them in some semblance of order and put it up for all to refer to. Thank you!!
‘Night’ is a wonderful book. Harrowing, but wonderful.
I really want to see the movie version of The Boy with the Striped Pajamas, mostly because I hear they really changed it from the book, yet it was still incredible. The book was such an amazing allegory about people ignoring the plight of millions and convincing themselves the the Holocaust wasn’t happening (and sadly, there are people that still believe this!).
There is also a really moving childrens book, not to be missed, called Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine.
I love Night and The Book Thief. I would also recommend Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated for a very different kind of Holocaust novel. It’s a fantastic book that, in my opinion, raises some fascinating questions about the ethics of writing Holocaust fiction.
I second the recommendation of “The Book Thief” and would also recommend Cynthia Ozick’s “The Shawl” and “Art from the Ashes” by Lawrence Langer.
I recommend Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi. One of the big questions from the Holocaust is “how?” This book gives a portrait of what society was like, certainly not an excuse, but a view.
Kudos to Tanya for reading The Kindly Ones not once, but TWICE. Before I invest the time to read a book of that length, it’s star has to shine for quite awhile.