The Last of the Just

Andre Schwarz-Bart’s renowned novel The Last of the Just is “a triumphant monument to the nobility and tenacity of the human spirit” (Chicago Sun-Times).

On March 11, 1185, in the old Anglican city of York, the Jews of the city were brutally massacred by their townsmen. As legend has it, God blessed the only survivor of this medieval pogrom, Rabbi Yom Tov Levy, as one of the Lamed-Vov, the 36 Just Men of Jewish tradition, a blessing which extended to one Levy of each succeeding generation.

This terrifying and remarkable legacy is traced over eight centuries, from the Spanish Inquisition, to expulsions from England, France, Portugal, Germany, and Russia, and to the small Polish village of Zemyock, where the Levys settle for two centuries in relative peace. It is in the 20th century that Ernie Levy emerges, The Last of the Just, in 1920s Germany, as Hitler’s sinister star is on the rise and the agonies of Auschwitz loom on the horizon.

This classic work is one of those few novels that, once read, is never forgotten.

ANDRÉ SCHWARZ-BART (1928-2006) won the Goncourt Prize for The Last of the Just, a New York Times bestseller upon first publication, now in its sixth printing with Overlook. He was born in France. His parents were arrested in a Nazi roundup, and he served with the French Resistance.