The Fifth Son | The Fifth Son

At a glance:

Author: Elie Wiesel
First Published: 1983
Type of Work: Historical realism
Time of Work: The 1960’s to the 1980’s
Setting: New York City and Reshastadt, Germany
Principal Characters: The Narrator, Reuven Tamiroff, Simha-the-Dark, Bontchek, Lisa, The Angel, Ariel
Genres: Long fiction, Realism, Historical fiction
Subjects: 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, Murder or homicide, New York City, 1980’s, Revenge, Nazism or Nazis, Germany or German people, Holocaust, Jewish
Locales: New York, NY, Germany

The Fifth Son describes a journey into the past, a pilgrimage that leads the narrator, the son of Holocaust survivors, to an understanding of his father. Although written from the narrator’s point of view, the novel has three other voices: Reuven Tamiroff, the narrator’s father, whose reminiscences and letters provide glimpses of a tortured man; Bontchek, another survivor, whose recollections reveal more about Reuven; and Simha-the-Dark, also a survivor, who finally unlocks Reuven’s past.

The Fifth Son | The Fifth Son

At a glance:

The Novel

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