Schindler's List
The documentary novel of Oskar Schindler, the Nazi profiteer who saved 1,200 Jews.
The Verdict
The book behind the film, and a stranger, more searching thing than the movie that made it famous. Thomas Keneally built his documentary novel entirely from survivor testimony, telling how Oskar Schindler — war profiteer, womaniser, Nazi Party member — came to spend his fortune and risk his life to save some 1,200 Jews. Keneally's refusal to fully explain Schindler is the point: the book asks why a bad man did a great thing and declines to resolve it. A morally restless work that earned its Booker Prize.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- The true story behind Spielberg's film
- Moral ambiguity
- Rescue documented from survivor testimony
- A Booker-winning blend of fact and narrative
Look elsewhere if you want
- A conventional history of the Holocaust
- A clear moral resolution
- Pure fiction or pure documentary
Why We Rated It 4.5
Historical Context
Schindler's List (published in Britain as Schindler's Ark) tells the true story of Oskar Schindler, who protected roughly 1,200 Jewish workers in his factories during the Holocaust. Keneally built it from survivor interviews and documents. Published in 1982, it won the Booker Prize; Steven Spielberg's film adaptation followed in 1993.
Criticisms & Debates
Awarding the Booker, a fiction prize, to a book built so closely on documented fact prompted debate about its genre — whether it is a novel or narrative non-fiction. Keneally called it a documentary novel; the question of where reconstruction ends and invention begins is part of the discussion the book continues to provoke.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Collector's Corner
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0671880316
On Screen
This book was adapted for the screen. Here's how the two compare — and which to reach for first.
Keneally's book calls itself a novel but is built from survivor testimony and documentary record; Spielberg's film is one of the rare adaptations that honours its source almost completely. The film adds the unbearable immediacy of image — the girl in red, the liquidation of the ghetto. The book gives you the fuller, more ambiguous Schindler: profiteer and rescuer at once. Either is a defensible place to start.
Book or film, start wherever you like — both are worth it.
Other Books About the Same Events
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Schindler's List a novel or a true story?
- Both, in a sense: Keneally called it a documentary novel, built from survivor testimony and records but written with a novelist's narrative technique.
- Why is it sometimes called Schindler's Ark?
- That was the original British title; the US edition used Schindler's List, which became standard after the film.