I didn’t think it was possible for me to like this book more than The Tattooist of Auschwitz, but I think I did. Cilka’s Journey was an emotional and remarkable story, and one that I won’t forget.
One thing that really stood out to me was reading about the Siberian Gulags. I have read a ton of WW2 historical fiction, but in those, the camps are liberated and that’s that. You don’t read that there’s a whole group of millions of people that weren’t truly ‘liberated’, but they were imprisoned in Siberia for various ‘crimes’. It was heartbreaking to read about the conditions there, the rapes, the prisoner hierarchy.
The flashbacks to Cilka’s time at Auschwitz added another dimension to the book that made it stand out. It broke the story up and explained why Cilka felt or acted certain ways.
I think the writing was different in this book. Maybe because it’s her second book or maybe because this story is more fictional than Lale’s story. But I got sucked in and couldn’t put it down.
Thank you so much to The Book Club Cook Book and St. Martin’s Press for the galley.
One thing that really stood out to me was reading about the Siberian Gulags. I have read a ton of WW2 historical fiction, but in those, the camps are liberated and that’s that. You don’t read that there’s a whole group of millions of people that weren’t truly ‘liberated’, but they were imprisoned in Siberia for various ‘crimes’. It was heartbreaking to read about the conditions there, the rapes, the prisoner hierarchy.
The flashbacks to Cilka’s time at Auschwitz added another dimension to the book that made it stand out. It broke the story up and explained why Cilka felt or acted certain ways.
I think the writing was different in this book. Maybe because it’s her second book or maybe because this story is more fictional than Lale’s story. But I got sucked in and couldn’t put it down.
Thank you so much to The Book Club Cook Book and St. Martin’s Press for the galley.