I read The Tattooist of Auschwitz earlier this month and absolutely loved it which almost seems wrong to say because of the heartbreak contained within the story, but there was also hope and a sweet love story. In Cilka’s Journey, Cilka is afraid to hope for a life “outside” and can you really blame her? After serving 3 years in Auschwitz-Birkenau and then being sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in Vorkuta Gulag, Siberia for working for the enemy as a prostitute and a spy. Although, what choice did she really have? It was her only chance for survival.
Cilka was an amazingly brave and strong woman, who thought she hadn’t earned the right to be called that, always putting other’s needs ahead of her own even when it would have been to her benefit, her safety.
Cilka and Lale’s lives very much paralleled each other, and the best way I know to describe it is to say they seemed to have “nine lives”. Lale called Cilka the bravest person he’d ever met and after reading Cilka’s story I would have to 100% agree.
When I read stories like Lale’s and Cilka’s I have to wonder if I would be able to survive what the men, women and children went through, and I honestly don’t know that I would. I would hope that I would be able to tap into some hidden strength I didn’t know I had.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy of Cilka’s Journey; all opinions are my own.
Cilka was an amazingly brave and strong woman, who thought she hadn’t earned the right to be called that, always putting other’s needs ahead of her own even when it would have been to her benefit, her safety.
Cilka and Lale’s lives very much paralleled each other, and the best way I know to describe it is to say they seemed to have “nine lives”. Lale called Cilka the bravest person he’d ever met and after reading Cilka’s story I would have to 100% agree.
When I read stories like Lale’s and Cilka’s I have to wonder if I would be able to survive what the men, women and children went through, and I honestly don’t know that I would. I would hope that I would be able to tap into some hidden strength I didn’t know I had.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy of Cilka’s Journey; all opinions are my own.