BOOK REVIEW: Cilka's Journey

BOOK TITLE: Cilka's Journey
BOOK SERIES: Book 2 to The Tattooist of Auschwitz
GENRE: Historical Fiction
PUB DATE: 10/01/2019
PUBLISHER: St. Martin's Press
AUTHOR: Heather Morris
RATING: 5/5

SYNOPSIS: Cilka is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1942, where the commandant immediately notices how beautiful she is. Forcibly separated from the other women prisoners, Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly taken, equals survival.

When the war is over and the camp is liberated, freedom is not granted to Cilka: She is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp. But did she really have a choice? And where do the lines of morality lie for Cilka, who was send to Auschwitz when she was still a child?

In Siberia, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar, including the unwanted attention of the guards. But when she meets a kind female doctor, Cilka is taken under her wing and begins to tend to the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under brutal conditions.

Confronting death and terror daily, Cilka discovers a strength she never knew she had. And when she begins to tentatively form bonds and relationships in this harsh, new reality, Cilka finds that despite everything that has happened to her, there is room in her heart for love.

From child to woman, from woman to healer, Cilka's journey illuminates the resilience of the human spirit―and the will we have to survive.
REVIEW: "Cilka's Jouney" by Heather Morris is the second book to the Tattooist of Auschwitz. This book may be read as a stand-alone as Morris also provided extensive flashbacks from Cilka's time at Auschwitz-Birkenau. This is a heart-breaking and horrific story about Cilka who survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp where she had been since she was 16yo. Now that the war is over, Cilka's attempts to survive was seen as collaborating with the enemy, and for this she was sentenced to the Vorkuta Gulag, a Siberian prison. The work camp is harsh and brutal, where women in the "hut" experienced unbelievable brutality - bu being raped, overworked, and undernourished. The novel accounts the detail of this horrific Soviet Gulag where prisoners undergo the harshest conditions.

Cilka's big heart by caring for the women in the camp does not come unnoticed and places a target on Cilka, but also gave her an opportunity to work in the prison camp hospital where she is able to train as a nurse. In the hospital, she befriends Yelena an exceptional doctor whom she developed a lasting bond that Cilka needed to psychologically start healing from all the hurt and trauma Cilka has experienced.

As painful as it is to read about the horrors of what Cilka has lived through, has seen, and has experienced, Heather Morris' writing brings you in as she brilliantly captivates you into the story where you are able to see vividly and feel visceral pain and suffering not only by Cilka but from everyone in the camp. Though the story may be dark and at times bleak, Morris' writing is not without hope, and you will find that even among those flawed characters, you will find some understanding as Morris is able to peel the layers and show all sides of our humanity. This was  a beautiful and well-written historical fiction that truly illuminates the resiliency of the human spirit, and the strength we have to survive.

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and author Heather Morris for the ebook ARC of this amazing must read book.

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT:

I am a Native of New Zealand now resident in Australia, working in a large public hospital in Melbourne. For several years I studied and wrote screenplays, one of which was optioned by an academy award winning Screenwriter in the U.S. In 2003, I was introduced to an elderly gentleman "who might just have a story worth telling". The day I met Lale Sokolov changed my life, as our friendship grew and he embarked on a journey of self scrutiny, entrusting the inner most details of his life during the Holocaust. I originally wrote Lale's story as a screenplay - which ranked high in international competitions - before reshaping it into my debut novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Amazon Review Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1XHPSDLCBHUN4?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp