A fantastic companion novel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz!
If you are a fan of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, you will love Heather Morris’ new book, Cilka’s Journey. We meet Cilka Klein in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, but now we get to read about Cilka’s story.
At the young age of sixteen, Cilka becomes a prisoner of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942. She catches the eye of the high-ranking Commandant and she has to allow horrible things to happen to her in order to survive. After nearly three years at Auschwitz, the Soviet Union liberates the concentration camp and Cilka finally dares to hope that she will be free. Cilka is then charged as a Nazi collaborator and is sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in a Siberian gulag. Cilka’s story continues as she spends the following years as a prisoner.
Last month, I read The Tattooist of Auschwitz and it was a powerful and heartbreaking novel, but Cilka’s Journey has topped it in my book. This book is much longer and I appreciate how Morris developed Cilka’s story much more than she did Lale’s and I love it more because of that. We experience the extreme suffering that Cilka and the other characters go through, but Morris is also able to remind us that there can be moments of love and hope in some of the darkest times.
At the young age of sixteen, Cilka becomes a prisoner of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942. She catches the eye of the high-ranking Commandant and she has to allow horrible things to happen to her in order to survive. After nearly three years at Auschwitz, the Soviet Union liberates the concentration camp and Cilka finally dares to hope that she will be free. Cilka is then charged as a Nazi collaborator and is sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in a Siberian gulag. Cilka’s story continues as she spends the following years as a prisoner.
Last month, I read The Tattooist of Auschwitz and it was a powerful and heartbreaking novel, but Cilka’s Journey has topped it in my book. This book is much longer and I appreciate how Morris developed Cilka’s story much more than she did Lale’s and I love it more because of that. We experience the extreme suffering that Cilka and the other characters go through, but Morris is also able to remind us that there can be moments of love and hope in some of the darkest times.