Day After Night

Set in the Atilt Detention Center, Day After Night is the story of four young women who, after surviving the horrors of the holocaust, meet in a British run internment camp in Palestine. Their stories entwine as they await the proper papers that will allow them to complete the immigration process. 

The characters are well developed and completely engaging: Shayndel is a Polish Zionist who fought with the resistance. Many believe she was a hero, but she is haunted by memories that bring her shame. Zorah tries to hide the tattooed numbers on her arm, mortified by anything that associates her with the atrocities of Auschwitz. Tedi, with blue eyes, blond curls, and long legs, was sent into hiding by her parents, who trusted in her Dutch genetics to save her. Meanwhile, her younger sister (who took after the Jewish side of the family) was not so fortunate. Leonie, the Parisian beauty, gets rescued from the round-up, only to discover another form of Nazi torture.

Diamant's story is a verbal collage. She has an amazing way of piecing a plot together through a collection of snapshots. Different times, settings, characters, and themes are arranged in such a way that each has a significance of its own while contributing to the bigger picture. 

The author carefully researched the Atilt Detention Center  (which can still be visited today) as well as the events and circumstances surrounding many of its detainees. While I appreciate her commitment to candid realism, it sometimes results in hard-to-read passages. She does not glorify violence or evil, but she does describe them accurately. At the same time, beauty and tenderness are given their due. Like the title suggests, Day After Night is rich with contrasts: Hatred and love; cruelty and kindness; justice and mercy.

I have only read two of Diamant's books, and I have liked them both. Her writing is not for the faint of heart, her world is not made of sunshine and roses. Rather, she paints the clouds and the thorns for what they are--while allowing the sun rays and rose petals to be seen in their midst.