In every generation, according to Jewish tradition, thirty-six "just men" are born to take the burden of the world's suffering upon themselves. This powerful and austere novel tells the story of Ernie Levy, the last of the just, who died at Auschwitz in 1943.
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per jacket cover:

It was written by a young man who is largely self-educated, whose French was learned in the streets and whose first publication,this book, became a world-wide literary sensation the moment it appeared. French critics lauded it as a "great novel," "one of the most important books to appear in our time," a story that "flings us far beyond the confines of literature." The reading public in France seized upon it so avidly that its sale broke all records and passed 400,000 (in France alone) within five months. The jury that chooses France's leading literary award, the Prix Goncourt, performed the sensational act of advancing by several weeks the date of the award in order to be sure that no lesser prize went to this amazing book.

Most extraordinary of all is the book itself, a drama of Jewish suffering, martyrdom and transfiguration which begins with a pogrom in the twelfth century, ends in a gas chamber and grips the reader throughout with its narrative strength, its human warmth, its simplicity, its humor and its understanding of people. It has been called an epic, and as it appears in different languages all over the world it may achieve that rare distinction. One thing is already certain: like The Wall, The Diary of Anne Frank and a very few other books, The Last of the Just is a book that many Americans will read, discuss and remember for a long time.