Review of Advance Readers’ Edition
After three long years of fighting for survival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Cilka faces judgment at the hands of her Russian liberators and leaves one prison for another where she waits while her fate is decided. The officer finds Cilka guilty of working with the enemy as a prostitute and a spy and sentences her to fifteen years in the Vorkuta Gulag in Siberia.
Cilka soon learns that things are no different in this new camp. The harsh treatment, the lack of sufficient food, the rape and sexual abuse have all followed her to this new prison. But when she secures a job in the prison hospital, she finds both friendship and a purpose.
Based on the true story of Cecilia Klein, this novel, a sequel to “The Tattooist of Auschwitz,” details the horrific tortures visited upon those condemned to the concentration camps and the gulags. It’s a harrowing tale, a condemnation of the inhumanity cavalierly thrust upon those so unjustly imprisoned. Readers may find it a bit implausible that, as the story unfolds, EVERY evil thing comes to rest on Cilka’s shoulders, but it does serve as a durable vehicle to lay bare the abhorrent treatment endured by so many.
The courage of the characters is a counterpoint to the constantly-building tension that permeates the narrative with an almost palpable fear, making it difficult for readers to set the book aside before turning the final page. The story, with its strong sense of place, is dark and difficult, at times graphic and always frightening. It is gut-wrenching.
It is a haunting truth we must never forget.
Highly recommended.
After three long years of fighting for survival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Cilka faces judgment at the hands of her Russian liberators and leaves one prison for another where she waits while her fate is decided. The officer finds Cilka guilty of working with the enemy as a prostitute and a spy and sentences her to fifteen years in the Vorkuta Gulag in Siberia.
Cilka soon learns that things are no different in this new camp. The harsh treatment, the lack of sufficient food, the rape and sexual abuse have all followed her to this new prison. But when she secures a job in the prison hospital, she finds both friendship and a purpose.
Based on the true story of Cecilia Klein, this novel, a sequel to “The Tattooist of Auschwitz,” details the horrific tortures visited upon those condemned to the concentration camps and the gulags. It’s a harrowing tale, a condemnation of the inhumanity cavalierly thrust upon those so unjustly imprisoned. Readers may find it a bit implausible that, as the story unfolds, EVERY evil thing comes to rest on Cilka’s shoulders, but it does serve as a durable vehicle to lay bare the abhorrent treatment endured by so many.
The courage of the characters is a counterpoint to the constantly-building tension that permeates the narrative with an almost palpable fear, making it difficult for readers to set the book aside before turning the final page. The story, with its strong sense of place, is dark and difficult, at times graphic and always frightening. It is gut-wrenching.
It is a haunting truth we must never forget.
Highly recommended.