For Every Sin
by Aharon Appelfeld
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In For Every Sin, Aharon Appelfeld, recounts the moving and unforgettable story of Theo, a young Holocaust survivor struggling to come to terms with his experience. A student when he was first imprisoned, Theo is a young man who has lost his family and friends and wants nothing more than to return to his home. In a desperate attempt to escape the pain of the camps, he sets out to walk across Europe, determined to remain alone until he has regained his strength. In the nightmarish world he show more enters, haunted by images from his past and continually reunited with fellow survivors, he is forced to come face to face with his own demons and the human condition from which he cannot escape. show lessTags
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This turned out to be such a haunting, moving story. The last two paragraphs brought me to tears. It's a novel about Theo, a young man who was released from the camps in the Ukraine. He planned to walk by himself across Europe to his home town of Baden-bei-Wein in Austria. Along the way, he tried to avoid other survivors, but he did encounter them from time to time. His exchanges of conversation, hot coffee, and cigarettes, were fraught with a heaviness of spirit. On many occasions, he remembered or imagined conversations with his mother, a beloved free spirit but mentally ill, and with his dad, a serious rather distant paternal figure.
This is a story of the Holocaust, but not a story of atrocities. It is a story of feeling and what it show more was like to be a survivor. It gives the sense of alienation and the uncertainty if there was or was not something for which to hope. show less
This is a story of the Holocaust, but not a story of atrocities. It is a story of feeling and what it show more was like to be a survivor. It gives the sense of alienation and the uncertainty if there was or was not something for which to hope. show less
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Jewish Books
367 works; 24 members
Author Information
76+ Works 3,659 Members
Aharon Appelfeld was born in a town near Czernowitz, Romania on February 16, 1932. When he was 8 years old, he and his father endured a forced march to a labor camp in Ukraine. He escaped the camp and spent the next three years as a shepherd working for various peasants and always concealing his Jewish identity. He then joined the Soviet Army as a show more cook's helper. After World War II, he spent months in a refugee camp in Italy before going to Palestine in 1946. He worked on a kibbutz, fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and studied philosophy at Hebrew University. The Holocaust was the main subject of his books. His first novel, The Skin and the Gown, was published in 1971. His other works include Badenheim 1939, The Age of Wonders, To the Land of the Cattails, The Healer, The Immortal Bartfuss, For Every Sin, and Writing and the Holocaust. He received the Israel Prize for literature, The Prime Minister's Prize for Creative Writing, and two Anne Frank Literary Prizes. He taught Hebrew literature for many years at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Beersheba. He died on January 4, 2018 at the age of 85. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1989
- First words
- When the war ended Theo resolved that he would make his way back home alone, in a straight line, without twists or turns.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"There's no reason to go there. Stay here. We have everything we need. The shed is full of supplies. There's no sense in seeking something that can never be attained. We won't bring the dead back to life. You understand that. Here we're together. I won't conceal from you that it isn't always comfortable, but still, we're together."
Theo gulps down mug after mug. The hotl iquid seeped into him and filled him with warmth. Fatigue and helplessness assailed him. He placed his head on a bundle, curled up as if after a big quarrel, a desperate quarrel, closed his eyes, and collapsed.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Historical Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 892.4 — Literature & rhetoric Literatures of other languages Afro-Asiatic literatures Jewish, Israeli, and Hebrew
- LCC
- PJ5054 .A755 .A7813 — Language and Literature Oriental languages and literatures Oriental philology and literature Hebrew Literature Individual authors and works
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 101
- Popularity
- 318,321
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.19)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, German
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 2
