All Rivers Run to the Sea

All Rivers Run to the Sea was a book written by the late Elie Wiesel and first published in 1997 by Harper Collins Publishers. It is the first volume of his memoirs covering the period between 1928 and 1969.

I have almost all of Elie Wiesel's books in my personal library collection, because after reading Night I decided to find others he had written, and this book knocked my socks off when I first read it. He covers a lot of ground from theological to psychological, and philosophical. These memoirs chart the life of an innocent and timid young boy in Sighet who transforms into a world-renowned writer and a Nobel Prize winner. The narrative does not convey any kind of anger or bitterness for the experiences that he had, but instead questions why these things happen and delves intelligently into the psychology of human nature. I found many of the insights in this book very helpful in understanding such problems, because I encountered many of them in my own life: And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder. In this book, it seemed very much to me that he was looking for answers to some of the most perplexing and difficult questions that humanity has ever had to ask, and I found his logical style of thinking and deductive reasoning to be a great inspiration.

Although this book contains memoirs it certainly made me think beyond dates, names and places. I am very much a lightweight when it comes to understanding Jewish festivals but I used another book called The Jewish Festivals as a reference to figure out their significance.

The title All Rivers Run to the Sea comes from the famous passage in Ecclesiastes; ...what profit hath a man of all his labour... All rivers run to the sea, yet the sea is not full. Unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return... The acknowledgements page reads, "For almost thirty years, Marion Wiesel has been the first to read and edit the English versions of my books (when not translating them herself), including this volume of memoirs. I owe her more than gratitude."

There are some very helpful photographs in this book to augment the narrative including a photograph of his childhood home in Sighet Romania as it appeared in 1965. There are also some heart-rending images of Elie with his mother, and his sister Tziporah. There is a photograph with his sisters Bea and Hilda, and a photograph of his father and his grandfather Dodye Feig. It breaks my heart to learn that such beautiful people who deserved much better are no longer with us. It made me wish I had a time machine or something to make some changes to history, but of course, we are all trapped in this time.

Author: Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel was an outstanding human being with a vast experience of a wide range of topics. He was an inspirational intellectual who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. All of his books are worth reading.

Back Cover

Braille Monitors: The back cover reads, "Elie Wiesel is one of those small groups of survivors of the Shoah, or Holocaust, who understands and accepts that an important part of his life is to be a witness and to use his scholarship and his great gift for writing in testifying to the unprecedented tragedy of his people.

He has another gift, meeting people, and gaining their confidence and trust. There are anecdotes on virtually every page - and many of them could easily become short stories or novels.

This book takes us memorably to a world once filled with Jewish learning and laughter and love. (Hugo Gryn, Sunday Times)"

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