As the story opens, World War II has just ended. Sixteen-year-old protagonist Erwin, a Ukrainian of Jewish heritage, is joining a group of refugees on the way to Palestine. He learns Hebrew and is asked to change his name. In the fighting in Palestine, prior to Israel’s independence, he is wounded. While he heals, he contemplates life and copies biblical texts.

This is a low-key book. The journey is over quickly, and he is quickly wounded in the fighting. The vast majority of time is spent in recuperation. During this period, Erwin, renamed Aharon discusses many deep topics with doctors and visitors. He attempts to heal both emotionally and physically. He remembers his parents, who were killed in the Holocaust, and interacts with them in his dreams.

It is a different take on themes we often find in Holocaust literature. It portrays the anguish suffered by young adults who lost their parents and are not prepared to face life alone. The author explores the healing power of sleep, the importance of a name, and the desire to connect with the past.
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Erwin ha diciassette anni. Alla fine della guerra si ritrova, dopo lunghe peregrinazioni per l'Europa, a Napoli, insieme a un gruppo di rifugiati come lui. Ha perso tutto: padre, madre, lingua, rapporti famigliari. L'unico modo per dimenticare l'orrore che ha vissuto, per lui, è dormire, rifugiarsi nel sonno. Dormire per Erwin non è una fuga, ma un tuffo nel cuore della verità. Nel sonno può ritrovare la famiglia che non c'è più, sognare di avere ancora una vita come prima che tutto crollasse... Eppure Erwin non è fragile. Riesce a seguire un durissimo allenamento fisico, quasi militare, sotto la guida del responsabile del campo, e a imparare l'ebraico. Erwin infatti, come gli altri ragazzi che sono con lui, verrà portato in Israele, per poter iniziare una nuova vita. E quando viene il momento, si imbarcano tutti clandestinamente (la Palestina è ancora sotto protettorato britannico). Erwin, come i suoi compagni, decide di cambiare nome, per segnare un nuovo inizio. Da questo momento si chiamerà Aharon...

Aharon Appelfeld’s loosely autobiographical novel, The Man Who Never Stopped Sleeping, charts the gruelling and pain-filled rite of passage of a teenage Holocaust survivor named Erwin, a passage that encompasses a lengthy physical journey as well as a process of convalescence and self-discovery. Like the author, Erwin, a Jew, grew up in Czernowitz, in Bukovina, a mountainous region that straddles modern day Romania and Ukraine. Erwin survived WWII by hiding in the cellar of a neighbour, who, after agreeing to shelter him, instead held him captive and forced him to perform slave labour, making articles of clothing that the neighbour would sell. Having escaped, he joined the flow of refugees and ended up in Naples. But Erwin’s case is unusual. Overwhelmed by a profound weariness, he cannot recall the journey because he slept most of the time and was conveyed along by the more tolerant and generous of his fellow travelers. In Naples he is recruited out of the refugee camp, and along with other young Jewish men is given military training and instruction in Hebrew by the charismatic Ephraim, who tells them that they will fight for their new country when they get to Palestine. Again, though, he is compelled to request days off from training to sleep. As part of the ritual of emigrating to Palestine, he is also expected to renounce his given name and adopt a new name. He chooses Aharon. Erwin/Aharon is devoted to his calling, to fight for the new Jewish state, but in his team’s first manoeuvre he is gravely injured (his leg is shattered), and he spends the next couple of years (and the rest of the novel) recuperating and undergoing a series of painful surgeries. Though disappointed, he comes to realize over time that, like his father, he was meant to be a writer, and he trains himself for this by copying passages from the Hebrew Bible (in order to internalize the language and its cadences) and the works of famous Jewish writers. As well, in his dreams from this period he connects with his parents and other relatives, who advise him on the most honest and truthful way to live his life. The novel ends with the still very young Aharon living by himself in an apartment in Tel Aviv pursuing the vocation of his father. The action of this novel builds gradually, and is often slowed by Aharon’s dreams, which he recounts in detail. Throughout the novel’s 70 very short chapters, the reader is kept off balance, wondering what’s next for Aharon, where life will take him, and how the pressures brought to bear on him will be resolved. A chief allure of The Man Who Never Stopped Sleeping is the prose: Appelfeld’s unadorned but stunningly evocative writing provides an unsentimental and sometimes surreal rendering of the struggle to establish a Jewish state and homeland, a pivotal event in world history. Central to the story are themes of healing and survival, and young Aharon’s attitude toward his past is emblematic of this: pragmatic acceptance of what has befallen him and a firmly held resolve to not let it define or limit him. Despite his tribulations, Aharon remains cautiously hopeful for the future. Appelfeld does not dwell on the horrors of the Holocaust in this novel, instead focusing on the aftermath as experienced by one young man whose determination to live a worthy life and achieve something meaningful gives him the strength to move forward. ( )

A young Holocaust survivor takes his first steps toward creating a new life in the newly established state of Israel.

Erwin heeft ondergedoken gezeten, is al slapend langs vluchtelingenkampen gegaan en is in Napels opgenomen in een groep rond Efraïm, die van hen pioniers wil maken voor de staat Israël. Ze sporten veel, leren Hebreeuws en komen uiteindelijk in Palestina terecht. Daar leren ze stenen muren bouwen en bomen planten. Het is de bedoeling dat ze het leven in Europa vergeten: spreken in hun moedertaal wordt ontmoedigd en ze worden gestimuleerd om een Hebreeuwse naam aan te nemen. Erwin raakt gewond bij de eerste confrontatie met "de vijand". Zijn benen zijn verbrijzeld en pas na veel operaties en meer dan twee jaar kan hij weer beginnen met lopen. Intussen heeft hij zich voorbereid om schrijver te worden. Daarvoor kopieerde hij Hebreeuwse teksten en probeerde hij zich met die nieuwe letters te verbinden. In zijn slaap heeft hij voortdurend contact met zijn ouders en familieleden. Die verbinden hem met het "oude land". En die wortels zijn nodig voor zijn schrijverschap, dat uiteindelijk toch zijn bestemming blijkt te zijn. Prachtig boek!