Hoe overleef je als je volk wordt uitgemoord? Door verhalen, door een naam, door te zwijgen tot je niet meer kunt, door bij de partizanen te gaan, en misschien ook door de liefde? Grégor komt pas weer echt tot leven door een rabbi met een onorthodoxe aanpak. En ja, verhalen zijn heel belangrijk!

In the beginning of the book, Wiesel tells a story about a tradition Rabbis used to save their people. The tradition is not completely passed down to the future generations, and each new Rabbi must do what he can and pray to God that it is enough. By the last generation, all that is left of the tradition is to tell the story, so that's what Wiesel does.

Gregor, a young Hungarian Jew, is hiding in a cave in a forest when he meets a mysterious and mystical man with no name. Gregor gives him his true Jewish name, Gavriel, and Gavriel gives his life to save Gregor. Later, Gregor unintentionally betrays a childhood friend and has to find a way to live the rest of his life with the knowledge that two of the people who were closest to him died because of him.

This is one of Wiesel's earlier works, and since it's more about the psychological effects of the Holocaust than actual events, it's not as powerful as Night. Still, it tries to address the very real question of how do people who have lived through this kind of thing cope with being one of the survivors when so many other people died. There's just no answer to that question. ( )

The story about the Baal Shem Tov and successive generations of rabbinic leaders praying in a special place in the forest to save their followers, but each generation forgetting some of the ritual until all that is left is the story is in big letters before the beginning of the story. ( )

This is one of Wiesel's relatively early works, published in 1966. It is the story of the life of a teenage Jewish boy, surviving during World War 2 in hiding in a forest in Hungary. As the book opens, the boy is living in a cave where his father has left him, promising to return shortly but then never reappearing. Soon a mysterious stranger appears, and the journey begins.

The story of Gregor, the protagonist, is a story both of the world of men and of the spirit. As is common for Wiesel, the story is as much about his characters' relationship with God as with other men and the events of the world. Or rather, perhaps we can say that Wiesel tells the story of Jews' relationship with God as it has been shaped and driven by the events of the world, and especially by the Holocaust.

At any rate, the story of Gregor is a gripping one. We share outward and inward struggles to survive and make sense of the world around him, in a tale told partly in real time and in the real world of people and events, and partly in allegory, with more than a touch of Jewish mysticism blended in.

The wonders of human nature, of human perseverance and capitulation in the face of horrors, are explored with a gentle touch, despite the grim realities being portrayed. And in the end, against all odds, this is a love story. ( )