It's pretty likely if you know of Elie Wiesel, you were introduced to him through this book.

Night (not surprisingly, given its title) is an incredibly dark book. In recounting Elie's experiences during the Holocaust, it also chronicles the absolute destruction of his faith and the darkest depths of his soul.

Night doesn't contain the hopeful note that Wiesel ends his "Hope, Despair and Memory" speech on. The book, the first in a trilogy of books, eventually moves toward hope by the last book, Day, but this first book is a meditation on some of the most tragic events a human being can go through.