Twilight (Wiesel novel)
1988 novel by Elie Wiesel
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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]
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First US edition | |
| Author | Elie Wiesel |
|---|---|
| Language | French |
| Publisher | Summit Books (US) |
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]
