Key themes
- The choice that cannot be survived — except by not surviving it properly
- The American encounter with European atrocity
- Stingo's education in the nature of evil through two broken people
About this book
Stingo, a young Southern writer in Brooklyn in 1947, becomes close to Sophie Zawistowski — a beautiful Polish survivor of Auschwitz — and her brilliant, tormented lover Nathan. The novel builds to Sophie's terrible secret: the choice she was forced to make in the camp. Styron's National Book Award-winning novel is about guilt, survival and the American encounter with European atrocity.
Published in 1979, Sophie's Choice won the National Book Award and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film with Meryl Streep. Styron drew on his own time living in a Brooklyn boarding house in 1947.
Discussion questions
- The 'choice' is withheld until late in the novel. How does Styron prepare for it — and does the revelation satisfy the expectation it creates?
- Nathan is brilliant and mad and deeply dangerous. How does Styron develop his character — and what does Nathan represent in relation to the Holocaust's aftermath?
- Stingo is the Southern writer narrator learning about evil. What is Styron saying through this particular outside perspective — and does the device work?
- The novel has been criticised for making a non-Jewish character the vehicle for Holocaust narrative. How do you engage with this critique — and does it matter?
- Sophie's Choice won the National Book Award. What does it do that earns this recognition — and where does it succeed and where does it strain?
Get the book
Links open an Amazon search. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Read together or read next
Books that make a good pairing or natural follow-up.
Reading it with your group?
Get Sophie's Choice
As an Amazon Associate and Bookshop.org affiliate we earn from qualifying purchases.