Twilight (Wiesel novel)
.jpg) First US edition | |
| Author | Elie Wiesel |
|---|---|
| Language | French |
| Publisher | Summit Books (US) |
Twilight, originally published in 1988 in French as Le crépuscule, au loin, is a novel by Elie Wiesel.[1] The novel offers a fictionalized examination of a Holocaust survivor's pursuit to ascertain the fate of his wartime benefactor, while simultaneously addressing the broader existential questions surrounding his own survival.[1]
Plot
Twilight is the fictional story of a Holocaust survivor named Raphael Lipkin who is now a psychologist living in the United States of America.[2][3][4][5][6][7] He visits a psychiatric ward called "The Mountain Clinic," where he interviews several psychiatric patients who believe themselves to be various characters from the Hebrew Bible.[2][3][4][5][6][7] Interwoven with these accounts are Raphael's own memories of his life before and during the Holocaust, accounts of Raphael's brothers' lives during the Holocaust, and Raphael's memories of a Bricha agent named Pedro.[2][3][4][5][6][7]
Themes
Philosopher John K. Roth notes that Twilight continues Elie Wiesel’s literary trajectory from Night, deepening the exploration of moral and theological questions raised by the Holocaust survivor’s experience.[8] Janet Hadda echoes this in the Los Angeles Times, writing that the novel succeeds in grappling with the major themes surrounding faith, the struggle between good and evil, and mortality.[9]
Roth examined the recurring theme of friendship in Wiesel's fiction, pairing it with his earlier novel, The Town Beyond the Wall. In both books, a character named Pedro serves as a mentor figure to the protagonist, helping him through his despair.[8] The Encyclopedia of Holocaust Literature also explored this theme, noting how Pedro works in both stories to challenge the protagonist's assumptions about truth.[2]
Roth also observes that the protagonist's name, Raphael Lipkin, echoes Raphael Lemkin, the legal scholar who coined the term genocide.[8]
Reception
Contemporary reviewers, including a 1988 New York Times review, have characterized Twilight as a complex novel that engages with themes of memory, madness, and faith in the aftermath of the Holocaust, while noting its challenging and sometimes elusive narrative structure.[10] A 1988 Los Angeles Times review observes that Twilight revisits Elie Wiesel’s central concerns; how to come to terms with the meaning of the Holocaust, the heroism of its victims, the viciousness of its persecutors, and the role of faith.[9]
References
- 1 2 Twilight. April 27, 2021. ISBN 978-1-9821-4946-8.
- 1 2 3 4 Patterson, David; Berger, Alan L.; Cargas, Sarita, eds. (March 22, 2002). Encyclopedia of Holocaust Literature. Oryx Holocaust Series. Westport, Conn: Oryx Press. ISBN 978-1-57356-257-7. Archived from the original on February 10, 2014.
- 1 2 3 Lambert, Carole J. (2006). Is God man's friend? theodicy and friendship in Elie Wiesel's novels. New York Bern Frankfurt am Main Berlin: Lang. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-8204-7926-2.
Some of Heschel's perspectives on God may be found in Wiesel's Twilight.
- 1 2 3 Patterson, David, ed. (2015). The shriek of silence: a phenomenology of the Holocaust novel. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-6149-5.
...anatorium patient in Wiesel's Twilight. "His face appeared before me. . . .
- 1 2 3 Bauckham, Richard (January 6, 1995). Theology of Jürgen Moltmann (published 1995). p. 91. ISBN 9780567251435.
Appendix to Chapter Four: Elie Wiesel's Twilight: After this chapter was first written, Wiesel published a novel which contains his most mature reflections on the themes of theodicy which he first tackled in Night. The French title Le Crépuseule...
- 1 2 3 Patterson, David (1998). Sun turned to darkness: memory and recovery in the Holocaust memoir. Religion, theology, and the Holocaust (1st ed.). Syracuse, N.Y: Syracuse University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-8156-0530-0.
And so one sees that couched in these texts of memory is the outcry of the Rav condemned to death in Elie Wiesel's Twilight: "Here is my prayer. God of Israel: Listen to the people of Israel!" (1987, 34). When people turn their backs on their...
- 1 2 3 Patterson, David (April 1, 1999). Along the Edge of Annihilation: The Collapse and Recovery of Life in the Holocaust Diary. University of Washington Press. p. 283. ISBN 9780295803371.
When I killed my brother," says Cain in Elie Wiesel's Twilight, "it was really Him I wanted to kill. And He knows it. Any fool knows that whoever kills, kills God" (58). 5
- 1 2 3 Roth, John K. (1992). "From Night to Twilight: A Philosopher's Reading of Elie Wiesel". Religion & Literature. 24 (1): 59–73. ISSN 0888-3769.
- 1 2 Hadda, Janet (June 19, 1988). "Buried in the Starry Sky : TWILIGHT A Novel by Elie Wiesel; translated by Marion Wiesel (Summit Books: $17.95; 198 pp., 64407-6) : THE MAGIC WE DO HERE by Lawrence Rudner (Houghton Mifflin: $16.95; 212 pp., 0-395-45034-9)". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 26, 2026.
- ↑ Gross, John (June 10, 1988). "Books of The Times; Madness, Prophecy and a Lost Friend". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 26, 2026.