The Happiest Man on Earth
by Eddie Jaku
★ Top 25 book of 2020 · #14 on Best Books of 2020
Eddie Jaku, a Jewish man born in Leipzig, recounts surviving seven years in Nazi camps and the death march that ended them. At 100, he shares what gratitude, kindness and tolerance have taught him about living well.
Best for: Readers seeking an uplifting Holocaust memoir about gratitude and resilience
The Happiest Man on Earth is #14 on BookWard's Best Books of 2020, out of 65 2020 books that cleared our data bar.
What The Happiest Man on Earth is about
Eddie Jaku was a young man in Leipzig when Kristallnacht arrived in November 1938. He was beaten, arrested and taken to a concentration camp, and the years that followed carried him through Buchenwald, Auschwitz and a forced death march. His family, his friends and his homeland were all taken from him, yet he came out of it with a resolve he has kept ever since: to smile each day, as thanks for being alive and as a way of remembering the six million Jews who were murdered.
Written when he was 100, this memoir shows how a person can look back on unimaginable cruelty and still speak of gratitude. It is described as an uplifting memoir in the vein of The Last Lecture and Man's Search for Meaning.
The Happiest Man on Earth on the Best Books of 2020
The Happiest Man on Earth came out in 2020. Of the 65 books first published in 2020 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #14 on our Best Books of 2020 list.
Why it made the list: 282 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.8 out of 5 (16 ratings). The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2020 list
- The Almanack of Naval Ravikant Eric Jorgenson, #12
- From Blood and Ash Jennifer L. Armentrout, #13
- Cat Kid Comic Club Dav Pilkey, #15
- Heart Bones Colleen Hoover, #16
See all Best Books of 2020 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2019 Best Books of 2021.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 249 want to read it, 15 are reading it now and 18 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.8 out of 5 from 16 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 49 | 55% |
| Reader love | 97 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 74 | 20% |
Questions about The Happiest Man on Earth
When was The Happiest Man on Earth published?
The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku was first published in 2020.
Was The Happiest Man on Earth one of the best books of 2020?
The Happiest Man on Earth is #14 on BookWard's Best Books of 2020, out of 65 2020 books that cleared our data bar. 282 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.8 out of 5 (16 ratings).
Why is The Happiest Man on Earth on the Best Books of 2020 list?
282 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.8 out of 5 (16 ratings).
More of the best books of 2020
- Good Girl, Bad Blood Holly Jackson, #1
- The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Suzanne Collins, #2
- The Psychology of Money Morgan Housel, #3
- The Inheritance Games Jennifer Lynn Barnes, #4
- Heartstopper, Volume 3 Alice Oseman, #5
- The Midnight Library Matt Haig, #6
See the full Best Books of 2020, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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