Night
by Elie Wiesel, Marion Wiesel · first published 1960
48% recommend48% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Short, plainly written memoir of a teenager's time in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, recommended for its stark honesty and its portrait of human resilience. Often assigned to middle and high school readers.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
An autobiographical narrative in which the author describes his experiences in Nazi concentration camps, watching family and friends die, and how they led him to believe that God is dead.
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Off the top of my head, every book I can think of that provides deep insight into the human condition does require putting in some work. Let's take as an example "Night" by Elie Wiesel, a book that is written so simply it is typically assigned in middle school (that's when I read it). Well, it was assigned in school for a reason -- there's a lot of work to put in to…
on “Don't be terrified of Pale Fire” ↗Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen Animal Farm by George Orwell (a reread) Night by Elie Wiesel
on “Ask HN: What were the best books you read in 2025?” ↗…education, rewriting history to glorify the Kim dynasty. Contradictory evidence is inaccessible, so the official narrative becomes the “reality” for most citizens. . . . If you want a non re-read, I'd say Night by Elie Wiesel.
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you read in the last year?” ↗Animal Farm by George Orwell Night by Elie Wiesel The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris Lying by Sam Harris The Road by Cormac McCarthy Cosmos by Carl…
on “Ask HN: Books Recommendations?” ↗…Irish guy who grew up in an entirely black neighborhood, and if you closed your eyes you would have zero doubt he was black. One of the coolest (and most mind-blowing) guys I've ever met. Have you read "Night" by Elie Wiesel? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_(book) The Nazis had plenty of correlations (I'm sorry, _FACTS_) to being Jewish, put it that way... and we all know how that ended up. The only racial…
This year I've put myself to the challenge to read at least one book per week which I primarily could complete by reading in the middle of the night while holding our sleeping baby in my arms. It has been an interesting challenge which gave me a lot of fulfilment and has certainly changed my mind on how I view the world. This comment became quite…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023” ↗Night by Elie Wiesel.
on “Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?” ↗Night by Eli Wiesel and Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. Stories of how and why some people survived Auschwitz and found meaning despite their context, from two very different perspectives (a child…
on “Ask HN: Which book helped you understand the world?” ↗No, that's just asking for multiple people to reply. If that's your idea of a "nightmare", I have some recommendations for you: read Elie Wiesel's "Night", look at Guernica, visit an FGM activism web site, maybe volunteer at a suicide or rape crisis hotline.
on “Gmail Now Tells You Who You Want To Email” ↗I have never seen a still image that conveyed the horror of the Holocaust to me in the way that Elie Wiesel's Night did. I have seen a movie that did: Schindler's List, which was fiction, made with actors; and which was made at enormous expense because of the things people had said and written. Beyond that, though,…
on “This is a web page” ↗…Brennan-Jobs [Neutral] Gut - Giulia Enders [Two thumbs up] Born a Crime - Trevor Noah [Two thumbs up. Learned more about the nuances of apartheid than I thought] I'm Proud of You - Tim Madigan [Thumbs down] Night - Elie Wiesel [Thumbs up]
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗One of the most interesting books I was ever required to read was Night, by Elie Wiesel. In it he recounts how Holocaust survivors where disbelieved as similar to hysterical when they returned to warn their fellow Jews of the horrors ahead. From page 7: > Day after day,…
on “TikTok Inc. vs. U.S. Department of Commerce” ↗Not changed my mind (on what? "The holocaust is bad"?) but Night (and its sequel Day; I haven't read Dawn, which comes in the middle, yet) by Elie Wiesel. Horrifying, but important. Note that it's semi-fictionalized. On truly changing the way I thought of something,…
on “Ask HN: What are some essays that profoundly changed the way you think” ↗Night by Elie Wiesel. It showed me how resilient a human being can be.
on “Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?” ↗Read in 2025 - Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen Night by Elie Wiesel I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette Mccurdy (A re-read. Read it first in 2022)
on “Ask HN: Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2025” ↗