3 Review(s)

In Paradise is a unique and profound novel by one of the finest authors of the 21st century. Summary of the Book In the winter of 1996, over a hundred men and women of different nationalities, backgrounds and beliefs come together at the concentration camp in Auschwitz. During this week-long retreat the men and women offer prayers and meditate, while lodging and eating in the quarters of the Nazi officers, who about a few years ago had killed over a million Jews. Clements Olin, an American scholar of Polish descent is the protagonist of the novel. He travels to Poland to research the life of a writer who had survived the Holocaust, but committed suicide shortly after the war. Clements struggles with the profound and conflicting emotions aroused by the ghastly crematoria and selection platform. He finds himself in the grip of emotions and impulses of bewildering intensity, he is eventually forced to abandon his research and embrace a history his family has long suppressed. In Paradise is an extraordinarily brave and thought-provoking novel. About Peter Matthiessen Peter Matthiessen was an American author. He was born in New York City in 1927 and completed his graduation from Yale University in 1950. He is the only author to have won the National Book Award both for fiction and non-fiction. He has authored several books including The Snow Leopard, Shadow Country and The Tree Where Man Was Born.