The publication of Day restores Elie Wiesel's original title to the novel initially published in English as The Accident and clearly establishes it as the powerful conclusion to the author's classic trilogy of Holocaust literature, which includes his memoir Night and novel Dawn. "In Night it is the 'I' who speaks," writes Wiesel. "In the other two, it is the 'I' who listens and questions."

Struck and gravely wounded by a cab in Times Square, the novel's anonymous narrator, a Holocaust survivor, begins a profound and painful journey through his past, facing again and again the questions, Is it ever possible for Holocaust survivors to create new lives for themselves without remembering their old ones? A confrontation with the burdens of memory, Day explores a random catastrophe, the temptation of self-destruction, and their connection to the larger tragedy that befell an entire people. A new preface by the author reflects on the enduring questions raised in Day and on the novel's place in this trilogy.

Praise

"Wiesel has taken his own anguish and imaginatively metamorphosed it into art."—Curt Leviant, Saturday Review

 

"Wiesel's [books] have marked him as the messenger of the Jewish dead to the living."—Lothar Kahn, Mirrors of the Jewish Mind

About the Author(s)

Elie Wiesel

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.

photo: Sergey Bermeniev

Guides

Reading Group Guide

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