A Beggar in Jerusalem

By: Elie Wiesel

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

In the days following the Six-Day War, a survivor of the Holocaust visits the reunited city of Jerusalem. At the Western Wall in the Old City, he encounters the beggars and madmen that congregate there every evening - and who force him to confront the ghosts of his past and his ties to the present.

Weaving together myth and mystery, parable and paradox, Wiesel beckons the reader on a spiritual journey back and forth in time, always returning to Jerusalem.

Never forget: listen to more from Elie Wiesel.©1970 Elie Wiesel (P)1996 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"Very remarkable, indeed, outstanding." (New York Times Book Review)
"Perhaps the first major novel to bring to bear on the destiny of the Jew all the resources of modern European literary experience combined with the storytelling techniques of the Hasidic masters." (Washington Post Book World)

Captivating story from first to last chapter

I liked the different stories within the story. Interesting characters and interesting dialogue throughout the whole read.

Narrator ruins the story

Imagine a man with very tight butt cheeks, a long nose, and a pinched chest, trying to imitate British royalty, looking down his nose with disdain. This is Frederick Davidson in a very cramped nutshell.

Few can bear his voice, and yet he is repeatedly hired to destroy some of the most serious works of literature. Why? Perhaps it is a lack of care. Perhaps listeners want to pretend they are uptight British royalty.

But if you actually want to listen to the books, keep your distance. If you are an author, stipulate in your contract that you refuse to have your book desecrated by this man. If you are a publisher, please sleep on it. And if you have ties to the mafia...

If somebody would only blacklist him or give him voice lessons or demand more sincerity and less pretense. You can't fault a man for having a bad voice or being a bad reader, but for deliberately sounding like a disdainful imperial ass: the criminal code has only begun to grapple with this novel phenomenon.