Wiesel writes in a stream of consciousness, without a strict chronological order.

He shifts between the present and the past in order to link Elhanan's past as a partisan and Holocaust survivor with his present life as a professor and psychotherapist whose mind is succumbing to Alzheimer's Disease. If the reversions to the past seem haphazard and arbitrary, so are the reminiscences in the mind of Elhanan Rosenbaum.

This narrative technique works well because it adds to the suspense in Wiesel's novel. The reminders of the past, such as the stories by Hershel and Ephraim, are sections of a giant jigsaw puzzle that the novelist has created. Once Malkiel has focused himself on helping his father by traveling through Feherfalu, he finds different pieces and attempts to put them together. The novel is a mystery because the reader, just as Malkiel, himself, has no idea what will be...