Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Open Heart
    Unavailable
    Open Heart
    Unavailable
    Open Heart
    Audiobook1 hour

    Open Heart

    Written by Elie Wiesel

    Narrated by Mark Bramhall

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Translated by Marion Wiesel

    A profoundly and unexpectedly intimate, deeply affecting summing up of his life so far, from one of the most cherished moral voices of our time.

    Eighty-two years old, facing emergency heart surgery and his own mortality, Elie Wiesel reflects back on his life. Emotions, images, faces and questions flash through his mind. His family before and during the unspeakable Event. The gifts of marriage and children and grandchildren that followed. In his writing, in his teaching, in his public life, has he done enough for memory and the survivors? His ongoing questioning of God-where has it led? Is there hope for mankind? The world's tireless ambassador of tolerance and justice has given us this luminous account of hope and despair, an exploration of the love, regrets and abiding faith of a remarkable man.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateDec 4, 2012
    ISBN9780385393539
    Unavailable
    Open Heart
    Author

    Elie Wiesel

    Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in the town of Sighet, now part of Romania. During World War II, he, with his family and other Jews from the area, were deported to the German concentration camps, where his parents and younger sister perished. Wiesel and his two older sisters survived. Liberated from Buchenwald in 1945 by advancing Allied troops, he was taken to Paris where he studied at the Sorbonne and worked as a journalist. In 1958, he published his first book, La Nuit, a memoir of his experiences in the concentration camps. He has since authored nearly thirty books, some of which use these events as their basic material. In his many lectures, Wiesel has concerned himself with the situation of the Jews and other groups who have suffered persecution and death because of their religion, race or national origin. He has been outspoken on the plight of Soviet Jewry, on Ethiopian Jewry and on behalf of the State of Israel today. Wiesel made his home in New York City, and became a United States citizen. He was a visiting scholar at Yale University, a Distinguished Professor of Judaic Studies at the City College of New York, and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University where he taught 'Literature of Memory.' Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council from 1980 - 1986, Wiesel served on numerous boards of trustees and advisors. He died in 2016.

    More audiobooks from Elie Wiesel

    Related to Open Heart

    Related audiobooks

    Judaism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The SECOND COMING

      Mar 20, 2022

      The SECOND COMING
      4 min read

    • Article

      False Prophets

      Jun 1, 2023

      False Prophets
      6 min read

    • Article

      Death Of a Prophet

      Sep 24, 2021

      Death Of a Prophet
      16 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Iľja Rákoš

      Dec 23, 2020

      I’d been out of the hospital following (let’s call it) treatment for COVID-19 about a month. My hospital ward of 50 patients had one oxygen concentrator. Despite my blood-oxygen saturation levels of 90%, that device wasn’t coming my way anytime soon.

      6 min read

    • Article

      WHO’S The In NEWS?

      Jun 24, 2022

      On 8 May this year, South African comedian and filmmaker Leon Schuster lost his mom Jessica Schuster who died at age 100 due to natural causes. In the last few hours of her life, Leon posted on Facebook, “I am currently in Bloem where my 100 year old

      3 min read

    • Article

      Spotlight Michael Rosen

      Jun 6, 2023

      Spotlight Michael Rosen
      3 min read

    • Article

      Father Weeder’s Remarkable Life

      Apr 13, 2024

      Father Weeder’s Remarkable Life
      4 min read

    • Article

      Gift Ideas For The Heart And Mind

      Nov 25, 2022

      During lockdown, as YouTube was spinning out various worship songs on my feed, I listened to the song ‘Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me’ by a worship ministry named CityAlight. As I replayed this and other gems including ‘Christ is Mine Forevermore

      2 min read

    • Article

      Challenging Indifference

      Mar 31, 2024

      Challenging Indifference
      3 min read

    • Article

      Open Line

      Oct 30, 2019

      Open Line
      2 min read

    • Article

      Joy! News

      Dec 31, 2021

      Two-time GRAMMY Award winner Lauren Daigle was recognized for the impact that both her music and philanthropy has had on millions of people worldwide. The Global Impact Honor, presented by the iconic singer/songwriter and musician Amy Grant, distingu

      5 min read

    • Article

      Jason Isbell Is Finding His Purpose

      Jun 3, 2023

      Jason Isbell Is Finding His Purpose
      3 min read

    • Article

      Why 'The Guy' From The Office Wants A Spiritual Revolution

      Aug 13, 2023

      Rainn Wilson's book calls for a spiritual revolution in America. And even though he himself is a very funny guy, he is not joking about this at all.

      8 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Feb 9, 2024

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      11 min read

    • Article

      An Apex of Babble

      Mar 6, 2019

      An Apex of Babble
      13 min read

    • Article

      WHO’S In The NEWS?

      Oct 27, 2023

      Survivalist and author Bear Grylls recently shared that he was baptised in the Jordan River, the same location where Jesus Christ was baptised. Grylls, best known for starring in the show, “Man vs. Wild” is outspoken about his Christian faith. Grylls

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Martha Anne Toll

      Dec 23, 2020

      The drama! The agony! The misogyny! The biting social commentary! The pathos! The post A Year in Reading: Martha Anne Toll appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Survivors Martin Schoeller

      Jun 30, 2020

      Survivors Martin Schoeller
      1 min read

    • Article

      Getting Better

      Apr 5, 2023

      Ebury, 272pp, £16.99 Michael Rosen's latest is billed as both a self-help manual and a memoir. It details his long bout of Covid, including a 40-day induced coma, from which he awoke realising he had to find ways of ‘getting through.’ James McConnach

      1 min read

    • Article

      Hope Is The Only Choice

      Nov 6, 2023

      I was raised a reluctant Jew. My parents provided the raising and the Judaism, and I supplied an ocean of reluctance. As a child, most things about religion confused me, but there were two questions I held inside for years, firm in my belief that no

      2 min read

    Reviews for Open Heart

    3.5/5

    51 ratings6 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      somewhat confusing
    • 4/5
      Wiesel was a survivor of Auschwitz, a novelist, journalist, teacher and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. He died last year and though it has been many, many years since I read his work, I decided to pick up this very slim volume for the March selection of the non-fiction challenge. This month's theme is heroes and villains and he definitely falls into the Hero category, in my eyes. This book was written shortly after his open heart bypass surgery in 2011 and in it, he once again confronts his own mortality and many of the big questions of life that he has been thinking and writing and teaching about all his life. This time, though, he is 82 years old and the perspective has changed. While I have always admired his humanity and his ability to have gratitude and optimism in the face of a world that seems to challenge the very meanings of those concepts, I still have a very difficult time with the *God* aspect of it all. I cannot understand how he can continue to be such a devoutly believing person, in spite of his own personal experiences. Yet, I had a sense that he knows there are no answers to his questions, but he is compelled to continue to ask. There were a few passages that I marked as a valiant attempt to perhaps explain to a non-believer such as myself and the words are, as expected from a man such as Wiesel, eloquent:"I know - I speak from experience - that even in darkness it is possible to create light and encourage compassion. That it is possible to feel free inside a prison. That even in exile, friendship exists and can become an anchor. That one instant before dying, man is still immortal."There it is: I still believe in man in spite of man. I believe in language even though it has been wounded, deformed and perverted by the enemies of mankind. And I continue to cling to words because it is up to us to transform them into instruments of comprehension rather than contempt. It is up to us to choose whether we wish to use them to curse or to heal, to wound or to console."As a Jew, I believe in the coming of the Messiah. But of course this does not mean that the world will become Jewish; just that it will become more welcoming, more human. I belong, after all, to a generation that has learned that whatever the question, indifference and resignation are not the answer."That last line rings especially true in my ears these days! And though I doubt I personally can ever be a believer, the last line of this book are words that could be a life lesson for many, and truly needed in the new world of 2017: "I know that eternities ago, the day after the liberation, when some of us had to choose between anger and gratitude, my choice was the right one."This is why Elie Wiesel is a hero in my eyes.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful (though very tiny) little book by Elie, essentially the ruminations of a person at the end of his life possibly on death's bed. I've always admired and loved the works of Elie Wiesel (and the man himself), and this is definitely no exception. A quiet, understated book about his reflections on his life, on his heart (and his looming heart-surgery, open heart bypass, and then the after-effects of it), his works, 'the event' (the Holocaust), survivors, and the Jewish tradition. It's both enlightening and sad to see a man as distinguished as Elie was, at the age of 82, and so close to death, questioning himself if he's done enough for his fellow survivors, if he's done enough to promote peace and stop hate and discrimination, and to just question his whole existence. But I think this is typical of all of us, and for those of us who haven't accomplished nearly 1/5th (or 1/100th) of what this great man has done, it's a bit of motivation for us to go out and do so much more, to try and live up to something of this level.
    • 3/5
      This is a short discussion about Elie’s thoughts about life when he was faced with open heart surgery. He is a prolific writer and is famous for “Night.” This book is short and has limited content but is still worth the read. Elie is a Jew with a philosophical perspective on life that I appreciate.
    • 4/5
      With all that Elie Wiesel has lived through,and with all the horrors of life that he has experienced firsthand, one might assume (as I erroneously did) that he would be all right - at peace, even - with the possibility of dying.

      You would be wrong.

      "Long ago, over there, death lay in wait for us at every moment, but it is now, eternities later, that it shall have its way. I feel it." (pg. 17)

      "Hadn't I lived with death, even in death? Why should I be afraid now? Yet, this is not how I imagined my end. And in no way did I feel ready. So many things still to be achieved. So many projects to be completed. So many challenges yet to face. So many prayers yet to compose, so many words yet to discover, so many courses yet to give, so many lessons yet to receive." (pg. 22-23)

      At the time of the writing of this book, Elie Wiesel is 82 years old and facing heart bypass surgery. Open Heart, then, is Wiesel's perfectly-titled reflection on his life as he prepares for what could be the end of it.

      And that's where, despite his extraordinary life, Elie Wiesel is no different than anyone else facing his or her own mortality in the form of a scary diagnosis or medical condition. In such instances, it's natural to reflect back on one's life and work, to recount the decisions made and the roads traveled.

      He shares how he met his wife Marion, their life's work together, and his joyful memories on the birth of their son and grandchildren. He returns to the Holocaust, the pain of losing all of his immediate family in a concentration camp and his devotion to them. ("In truth, my father never leaves me. Nor do my mother and little sister. They have stayed with me, appearing in every one of my tales, in every one of my dreams. In everything I teach." pg. 53)

      In Open Heart, there are questions. Big ones, without answers. (At least, not right now.)

      "Have I performed my duty as a survivor? Have I transmitted all I was able to? Too much, perhaps? ....I feel the words [in Night] are not right and that I could have said it better...In my imagination, I turn the pages." (pg. 40-41)

      If it seems as if I'm quoting more from this slim little book than offering my own thoughts, I am. I mean, hello! - it's Elie Wiesel. He just has a way with words, and while there aren't many in them in Open Heart (a book that I read in less than an hour), they are ones that most of us - when faced with a health scare of our own - could relate to.

      (They are ones that have, for many reviewers of this book, been panned for being either too trite or not enough. My take is the opposite; this is meant to be a comfort, I think, for people who are going through their own trials.)

      Open Heart ends optimistically. (Wiesel obviously survives his bypass surgery, even with the surgeon telling him upon his awakening, "You've come back from far away.") It is a reaffirmation of what kind of person one wants to be with whatever time is left remaining and a call to action to each of us to open our own hearts in making the necessary choices.

      "A credo that defines my path:

      I belong to a generation that has often felt abandoned by God and betrayed by mankind. And yet, I believe that we must not give up on either.

      Was it yesterday - or long ago - that we learned how human beings have been able to attain perfection in cruelty? That for the killers, the torturers, it is normal, thus human, to act inhumanely? Should one therefore turn away from humanity?

      The answer, of course, is up to each of us. We must choose between the violence of adults and the smiles of children, between the ugliness of hate and the will to oppose it. Between inflicting suffering and humiliation on our fellow man and offering him the solidarity and hope he deserves. Or not.

      I know - I speak from experience - that even in darkness it is possible to create light and encourage compassion. That it is possible to feel free inside a prison. That even in exile, friendship exists and can become an anchor. That one instant before dying, man is still immortal.

      There it is: I still believe in man in spite of man. I believe in language even though it has been wounded, deformed and perverted by the enemies of mankind. And I continue to cling to words because it is up to us to transform them into instruments of comprehension rather than contempt. It is up to us to choose whether we wish to use them to curse or to heal, to wound or to console." (pg. 72-73)
    • 4/5
      My daughter recently saw Elie Wiesel at the Civic Opera house in Chicago and said she cried through the whole thing. That he was just so honest, caring and sweet. This book definitely reflects all of that, his honesty shows through, his love for his son and wife, his faith and the coming to terms with his past. Facing death impels one to re-examine everything in their lives. He remembers his past, his father, all the trials he and his wife had faced together and knows their are still things he wants to do, while at the same time wondering if he has done enough. Short little book that says much.