Night

This book is one of those ones that as you read, you can't help but be sucked in, forced to keep reading, even if it makes you cry. Elie Wiesel has written a beautiful novel, and though it is a fictional story, it also serves a memoir. Everything that happens Eliezer, the main character, with a few details changed, are what happened to Wiesel.

I was in high school the first time I read this book. We spent a whole unit really trying to dive into what Wiesel went through, even watching an interview between him and Oprah Winfrey. It is hard to read about all the hardships, physical abuse and death that Wiesel's character is forced to face. For a high schooler, and even most people to day, it is difficult to imagine that people had to go through this, that people could hurt their fellow man in such horrifying ways.

The only other book that students will probably be familiar with that deals with the Holocaust at this point is "The Diary of Anne Frank." I think that this offers a great comparison, but also believe that "Night" gives a different viewpoint to the war. Anne Frank is a autobiography, an actual dairy. However,  "Night," though fictional, gives more insight into the actual death camps.

I absolutely love this book. It is gut-wrentching, but important to history.