After memoir flap, Winfrey picks another

In her first book club pick since allegations that some parts of her last selection were fabricated, Oprah Winfrey chose Elie Wiesel’s “Night,” a novel so personal that the author calls it a memoir.

Winfrey announced the selection of Wiesel’s autobiographical novel about the Holocaust on her show Monday. Wiesel, 77, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for a lifetime of writing and speaking against hatred, racism and genocide.

“Night” is Wiesel’s account of his family’s placement in the Auschwitz death camp and is the first of more than 40 books, essays and plays he has written. The book is marketed on some online bookstores as a novel, but Wiesel’s foundation labels it a memoir.

Winfrey’s last book club pick, the memoir of addiction “A Million Little Pieces,” has drawn criticism over allegations that author James Frey had fabricated some parts, including a three-month prison stint that apparently never happened.

Winfrey said Monday that she plans to travel with Wiesel to Auschwitz next month, and her show will have a high school essay contest on Wiesel’s book. Fifty winners will be flown to Chicago, where her show is based, for a taping with the author.