Why did I love this book?
I first read this book while in graduate school in the late 1980s. I have read it many times since as a reminder about a broader perspective on life and tragedy. This book is about psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's experience in the Nazi death camps. Frankl was in four different camps, including Auschwitz, between 1942 and 1945. He survived but his parents, brother, and pregnant wife were all killed. In spite of horrific conditions and monumental losses, Frankl writes about the ability to choose one’s response to tragedy, find meaning in it, and furthermore, how to live with purpose. This book is surprisingly uplifting and spiritually inspiring.
43 authors picked Man’s Search for Meaning as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
One of the outstanding classics to emerge from the Holocaust, Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's story of his struggle for survival in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. Today, this remarkable tribute to hope offers us an avenue to finding greater meaning and purpose in our own lives.