The Forgotten (French: L'oublié "the forgotten one") is a novel by Elie Wiesel, published in 1992 in French. It follows two men, Elhanan Rosenbaum, and his son Malkiel. Elhanan is suffering from an incurable disease that causes him to lose his memory slowly, something like amnesia. Elhanan tells Malkiel the story of his past before he forgets it all. Malkiel is compelled to go to the village in Romania where his father failed to stop a crime from occurring, a memory that continues to haunt him. Malkiel encounters the truth about his father and attempts to deal with the past.

PLOT SUMMARY

Distinguished psychotherapist and survivor Elhanan Rosenbaum is losing his memory to an incurable disease. Never having spoken of the war years before, he resolves to tell his son about his past—the heroic parts as well as the parts that fill him with shame—before it is too late.

Elhanan's story compels his son to go to the Romanian village where the crime that continues to haunt his father was committed. There he encounters the improbable wisdom of a gravedigger who leads him to the grave of his grandfather and to the truths that bind one generation to another.