Sophie's Choice
A young writer in postwar Brooklyn is drawn into the life of an Auschwitz survivor carrying an unbearable secret.
The Verdict
William Styron's most famous novel approaches the Holocaust at a slant — through a young Southern writer in postwar Brooklyn, drawn to a beautiful Polish Catholic survivor of Auschwitz and her brilliant, unstable Jewish lover. The title's terrible meaning, when it finally arrives, has entered the language. Styron is writing about the unbearable weight of survival and the limits of anyone's ability to comprehend the camps from outside, and the book is both powerful and, by design and by controversy, troubling. A serious, contested reckoning with the catastrophe's long shadow.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- The Holocaust's long aftermath in fiction
- The unbearable cost of survival
- A National Book Award-winning novel
- A serious, literary, contested reckoning
Look elsewhere if you want
- A survivor's first-hand testimony (read Levi)
- A camp narrative itself
- An uncontroversial treatment
Why We Rated It 4.3
Historical Context
Sophie's Choice (1979) is narrated by a young writer, Stingo, and follows the Polish Catholic Auschwitz survivor Sophie and her lover Nathan in 1947 Brooklyn. It won the National Book Award and was filmed in 1982, with Meryl Streep winning an Academy Award.
Criticisms & Debates
Styron drew criticism for centring his Auschwitz story on a non-Jewish Polish protagonist and, more broadly, for a Gentile American author dramatising the camps at all. Defenders argue the book is precisely about the limits of outside comprehension. The debate is part of the novel's history.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0679736370
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
Other Books About the Same Events
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is 'Sophie's choice'?
- Without spoiling it: the title refers to an impossible decision forced on Sophie at Auschwitz, revealed late in the novel; the phrase has since entered common usage.
- Why is the novel controversial?
- For centring its Holocaust narrative on a non-Jewish survivor and for a Gentile author's dramatisation of the camps — debates the book has carried since publication.