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Cover of The Last of the Just

Winner · Prix Goncourt 1959

The Last of the Just

by André Schwarz-Bart

1959 novel by André Schwarz-Bart

The Last of the Just is a post-war novel by André Schwarz-Bart originally published in French (as Le Dernier des justes) in 1959. It was published in an English translation by Stephen Becker in 1960. It was Schwarz-Bart’s first book and won the Prix Goncourt, France’s highest literary prize. The author was the son of a Polish Jewish family murdered by the Nazis and he based the story on the massacre in York.

The story follows the "Just Men" of the Levy family over eight centuries. Each Just Man is a Lamed Vav, one of the thirty-six righteous souls whose existence justifies the purpose of humankind to God.

Synopsis from Open Library.

Language
French
Genre
historical fiction

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