Dawn

By Elie Wiesel, Frances Frenaye (Translator)

Part of the The Night Trilogy series

A young freedom fighter faces a moral crisis before dawn's deadly mission.

3.8/5 Goodreads · 23,842 ratings

81 pages· 23,321 words

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Bookroo's summary

In British-controlled Palestine, Elisha, a Holocaust survivor turned freedom fighter, must execute a captured English officer at dawn. Haunted by his past in Nazi camps and driven by dreams of a homeland, Elisha grapples with the moral weight of his mission. As the night unfolds, he confronts guilt, ghosts, and the divine, questioning the cost of his actions. Will he fulfill his duty, or will the dawn bring a different fate? This tense narrative explores the clash between traditional morality and the harsh realities of power and survival.

From the publisher

Two men wait through the night in British-controlled Palestine for dawn–and for death. One is a captured English officer. The other is Elisha, a young Israeli freedom fighter whose assignment is to kill the officer in reprisal for Britain’s execution of a Jewish prisoner. Elisha’s past is the nightmare memory of Nazi death camps. He is the only surviving member of his family. His future is a cherished dream of life in the promised homeland. But at daybreak his present will become the tortured reality of a principled man ordered to commit cold-blooded murder. Resonant with feeling, “Dawn” is an unforgettable journey into the human heart–and an eloquent statement about the moral basis of the new Israel.”An illuminating document . . . the plight of traditional Jewish morality confronted with the modern world of power politics and of murder.”–Maxwell Geismar

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