Heather Morris has done it again! To piece together such a challenging, deep, and ugly part of the worlds history and somehow make it beautiful is a talent. Following the journey of Cilka Klein, first a prisoner at Auschwitz, only to be released and transferred to A Soviet Gulag in the Arctic Circle of Siberia, we follow her journey, learning so much more about what it takes to survive.

This book is not a light-hearted read, and deals with many things that are hard to imagine and can be difficult to read at times. This compelling and harrowing read should be next on your list of books to read!

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this book. Cilka is an amazing character. She is charming and thoughtful and loved hearing her sequel. So grateful for the opportunity to read!

Cilka was a beautiful young girl living a wonderful life with her parents and sister. All this comes crashing down when she ends up in Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1942. Now Cilka is forced to do what she can to survive. Through all this traumatic ordeals, she finds herself charged as a collaborator of the enemy and sent to a prison camp in Siberia. How will she face this new horror? Will there ever be a future for her?

This was such a beautifully written and tragic story. Cilka is a true survivor in that time period. She did things against her morals to survive but always tried to be selfless and resourceful to help others. Cilka ends up becoming closes friends with Josie on the train to Siberia. While their friendship had rough patches, that friendship was a prime example of Cilka's love for others.

I had such a book hangover from this story. It was so worth it! This story will invoke a lot of feelings from love to hatred. I would highly recommend this book!!!!! I hope that Heather Morris writes a few more stories for some of the new characters. (Hint hint!😉 I would love to know what happened to Josie.)

Thank St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for my advance copy!!!

I was provided an advanced copy via Netgalley in exchanged for an honest review.

This book is well constructed and well written. I very much enjoyed Cilka's story and she was one of the most intriguing characters from The Tattooist of Auschwitz. She played a major role in Lale and Gita's story and I was excited to get to know more about her. While this is not based on interviews with the main character herself, the story is based on true events, interviews, and research found about Cilka and her experiences in Auschwitz-Birkenau and her time in a Russian prison camp.

I expected this to be about Cilka's time in Auschwitz, however the focus is about her time in Russia after WWII. Morris does take us back several times to give us the details about the horrors Cilka faced at the hands of the Germans and how she survived, however the focus is on her time surviving as a prisoner in the Russian gulag. Cilka was imprisoned for collaboration, but as you learn her story of survival and her compassion for others you may not see her as a collaborator. Her strength and will to live are the main focus of her tale, much like Lale's.

I enjoyed this a bit more than Tattooist. It read more like a novel where that read more like a script for a play or movie. There is more character development and the story while harrowing feels more realistic. This also is not a love story and while it is based on real people and real events it is a work of fiction and reads like a fiction novel. There were some things I didn't love about this, Cilka is portrayed as the most sought after woman in the prison camp by every man she encounters. It is a prison camp where they barely eat, rarely bathe, and every man falls madly in love with her. It is a trope I could have done without. It took away from the moment she found her true love. I felt like that with many of the situations, they lacked that spark of emotion I wanted to feel be it fear, anger, hope, etc. I felt sad and compassion for the characters as I read, but there were so many horrible things that happened to Cilka and the other women she lived with that I should have had more of an emotional response to the events and conditions they faced. This is indeed a harrowing tale, and I just wanted to feel more from it. Overall the storyline is good, it was just missing that emotional connection for me.

If you loved Tattooist, you will likely love this as well. The writing style is very similar and the characters you will encounter are just as brave and compassionate. Both books read as standalones, so you do not need to read The Tattooist of Auschwitz prior to reading Cilka's Journey. You will gain some perspective of who Gita and Lale are if you do, but it isn't necessary.

I did not want this book to end. Knowing that it is based on a real woman makes it that much more moving. What a brutal setting...both historically and geographically. Cilka and all the other characters came alive as I was reading ... some made me laugh, most made me very sad, and a few enraged me. So thankful that I did not have to walk in Cilkas shoes as I am not sure if I could survive even one day I. Her life. I read Solzhenitsyn many years ago so I was familiar with the Gulag but had forgotten just how brutal it must have been. Cilia was able to make such a difference in so many lives I was thrilled to read the ending. Her bravery and devotion to others will stay with me for a long time.
This is definitely a book that everyone should read! Many many thanks to Heather Morris, St Martins Press, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read this very moving inspirational novel.

**Trigger Warnings: Death, Rape, Holocaust**

After being liberated from Auschwitz, Cilka is accused of being a spy because she can speak multiple languages and having slept with the enemy. She’s taken to a Siberian prison where conditions aren’t much better than Auschwitz. She faces many challenges much like in the other place. She begins working in the prisoner's hospital with a nice female doctor who seems to care for her. Throughout the story, Cilka is faced with death and horrifying things every day, but somehow she still finds somehow that she’s still capable of love.


I loved reading The Tattooist of Auschwitz so much. It was such an inspirational story, so when I saw that Heather Morris wrote a sequel featuring another character from the same book I knew I had to read it and I am so happy that I did. Heather Morris is an amazing author. I have tried to read other books about people who survived Auschwitz and other places like it, and I just couldn’t. She has a way with words that I will always enjoy reading.


You don’t necessarily have to read The Tattooist of Auschwitz before you read Cilka’s Journey, but I highly recommend it. Cilka mentions Lale and Gita (the main characters in The Tattooist of Auschwitz) a couple of times when she is remembering things from the past but for the most part, it’s just about Cilka’s life after Auschwitz in the Siberian prison.


While, yes, this is a dark, sad story, it’s also a story of hope. Cilka’s hope falters many times throughout the story, but I mean who’s wouldn’t in a place like that, especially after already being in Auschwitz. I do promise you this though, you will have a smile on your face at the end of the book.

Like I said before, I would read anything Heather Morris has to ofter and I highly encourage you to do the same if you enjoy reading historical fiction.


Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book! It's fantastic and one of the best books I've read this year. The vast majority of the book takes place in a Russian Gulag, but there are flashbacks to Auschwitz throughout. Cilka's story is painful to read, but also so amazing and inspiring. After reading this, I know I'll never forget her. I've actually never read The Tattooist of Auschwitz, but that didn't stop me from understanding and enjoying this book. I'm definitely going to be reading it very soon though!

This is a phenomenal story about a very brave, young woman who endured more pain and suffering than any human should ever have to and somehow miraculously managed to remain a kind human being.

A super huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review!! :)

Cilka’s Journey is a follow up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris. It is a heartbreaking story of survival, friendship, forgiveness and love during one of the most horrific times of our era. Cilka’s journey from a life among dead in Auschwitz concentration camp to becoming a prisoner in one of the Russian’s gulags is a captivating and tear-jerking story that will leave the reader emotional and amazed. Amazed at the strength, the bravery and the resilience of one woman while experiencing brutality and cruelty of other peoples’ hunger for power and superiority. This book left me emotional and mentally spent, but I think it was an important book for me to read. I highly recommend this book to all historical fiction lovers.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martins Press and the author for providing me with an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Raw!

What more can I do than add my praises to the already resounding accolades this novel deserves
Before opening the pages I'd wondered if I really wanted to face more evidence of the sorry state of misery that mankind so frequently doles out. The inhumane actions of the powerful inflicting pain on the powerless, the mindlessness of bureaucratic decisions that completely annihilate the hopes of the individual. Such suffering and torment goes unheeded.
Despite this, at its heart, Cilka's Journey also points to the redemptiveness of the human psyche and how some soar despite their circumstances.
Heart wrenching and heart warming, this is a work to be treasured for its willingness to face the hard realities of history, with underpinning forays of resilience to be nurtured.
All I can say is that Heather Morris is an amazingly gifted story teller.

A St. Martin's Press ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

Wow. Just wow. I didn’t think I could like a second novel as much as I liked The Tattooist of Auschwitz, but Morris has done it again! Cilka’s Journey is an amazing book, and I really thank Heather Morris for sharing Cilka’s story with the world. Everyone needs to learn about her and honor her life. It’s so difficult to put into words how much this story affected me. It leaves me in awe to think about how brave Cilka was and how giving she was even when all had been taken from her. The fact that anyone could still have hope in the face of all she went through is simply a testament to her level of human spirit. She was a true hero, and I am so glad I have learned her story to help keep her memory alive. I cannot thank Netgalley and the publisher enough for providing me with this ARC. It is one of the best books I have read in a long time!

Great book! Review to follow.

Suffice it to say, if you loved The Tattooist of Auschwitz, you will love this as well.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press, and Heather Morris for the opportunity to read and review this book - as with all books involving the atrocities of the Holocaust, it's hard to read and so moving. This is the follow-up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz but definitely also a stand alone read.

Cilka was only 16 when she was taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, along with her mother and sister. There, the commandant separates her and puts her in charge of the women awaiting the gas chamber. She learns to do what she must to survive. When the camps are liberated, Cilka is charged with being a prostitute and sleeping with the enemy. She is sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in Siberia. While overcome with guilt, Cilka still does what she needs to survive. Others notice her intelligence and she begins training as a nurse. The book alternates her time in the gulag with her past at Birkenau.

While based on a true person, this is a book of fiction. However, it brings out more things I didn't know about the horrible conditions of those who lived through this time.

In her follow-up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris freely admits that she has taken considerable literary license “filling in the blanks” as she tells the story of a woman who survives Auschwitz, only to find herself locked away again. Cilka Klein, Morris’s inspiration for his narrative is 16 years old when she enters Auschwitz-Birkenau and 18 years old when the camp is liberated by Soviet soldiers. Much to her surprise she is accused of collaboration with the Germans and sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor in a Russian Gulag. While portions of the story are the work of the author’s imagination those who know some of the history of WWII are aware that Russia had been invaded by the Nazis in 1941 and that 3.3 million Soviet prisoners of war as well as civilians were deliberately starved to death, or otherwise killed via the Hunger Plan, which aimed at replacing Russia’s Slavic population with German settlers as well as gaining the Russian oil reserves.. After the war Russian “liberators” were out to rebuild their country as well as to mete out some vengeance against the Germans who had treated them so brutally in the past as well as anyone who was thought to have aided in the German cause. I was surprised to learn that the Russians took captives, who had already suffered untold horrors at the hands of their German captors and miraculously managed to stay alive, sending them to Siberian gulags as slave labor as punishment for perceived collaboration with the enemy. (A sort of out of the frying pan and into the fire situation for these unfortunates).
The historical detail in Morris’s sharply written, well researched and compelling narrative are illustrative of Stalin’s actions at the end of the war and the brutal and inhumane conditions under which these holocaust survivors existed in the Soviet Gulags. Joseph Stalin was a tyrant whose philosophy and policies lasted well into the late 1950’s and almost make Adolph Hitler look benevolent by comparison.

A raw tale of a brave survivor’s journey. This is not for the light-hearted or those seeking an easy read. I held onto each morsel of the story, dark and oppressive as they were, because there was enough light and goodness to offset the emotion of settling in. Knowing this is based on a real person makes the story of Cilka more heroic because this young girl earned her place in having her story told throughout history. Her story is representative of many women and in this telling, their voices are being heard. Cilka survives the horrors of Auschwitz only to be imprisoned again, for “crimes” committed in the acts of fighting for survival. She carries the weight of what she has done and lived through but refuses to let any of it defeat her. She inspires others to fight and live and, whatever one’s take or stance, in the end, despite the many, terrible atrocities she experiences, she does live. She influences many around her and was a change agent in a time where all hope seems lost.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Cilka's Journey is the story of a young Jewish girl, a concentration camp survivor, liberated from Auschwitz-Birkenau and sent to a Russian gulag, Vorkutlag to serve 15 years for consorting with the enemy at the concentration camp. Cilka Klein has seen so much in her short life, and carries deep, dark secrets with her that she can't bear to share with anyone. She believes death follows her and those she loves, leading her to avoid opening up to others because of that thought. But in this prison, she befriends the women in her hut and a caring female doctor, who takes her under her wing and mentors her. However, when the chance that her secrets will be shared with these women, Cilka again does anything she can to prevent it from happening.

This novel focused more on the prison camp, rather than the concentration camp, but there are flashbacks to Auschwitz in places. The descriptive writing brought me back to the late 1940's and into the cold, harsh Siberian winter. Even through Cilka's darkest actions, I loved her character and ability to pull through any situation, always thinking of others and what would be best for them. She is a strong person to have lived this life. I enjoyed this book and will now read the prequel The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

When I saw that Heather Morris’s follow up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz was available on NetGalley a few months ago, I had just finished her first book and didn’t hesitate to snatch this one up. If you’re unfamiliar with Morris’ debut novel, it is a fictionalized retelling of the life of Lale Sokolov, a Jew who was forced to tattoo fellow Auschwitz-Birkenau prisoners (Lale worked with Morris to tell his story before his death). In The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Lale credits a girl named Cilka with saving his life. Her life story - full of as many wild twists and turns as Lale’s own - is the basis for this novel. Morris did not get to work with Cilka as she had already passed, instead relying on research and secondhand accounts. Cilka’s Journey is arguably a more important story - and one I haven’t heard told before, despite reading a lot of WWII historical fiction. After being brought to Auschwitz-Birkenau at sixteen, Cilka is separated from the other women and forced to become mistress to an SS officer. She does what she has to to survive, but when the camp is liberated, Cilka is arrested as an enemy collaborator and finds herself in prison all too similar to the one she just left. Told in alternating pieces - between her time in Auschwitz and in the Russian Gulag - Morris uses Cilka’s story as an opportunity - to talk about consent, to talk about how people deal with trauma in different ways, about morality, and about the way rape is used as a weapon of war. Cilka’s Journey is a longer read - it takes place over a longer period of time than The Tattooist of Auschwitz, and I found myself struggling at times with the slow pace. This is in part, I think, because of how emotionally difficult it was to read. While I would never consider Holocaust literature to be light reading, The Tattooist of Auschwitz did not hit me as hard as Cilka’s Journey did. Cilka’s story is devastating and heartbreaking, but it is also a story of survival and healing and hope. It was a difficult and necessary read - but ones that comes with a huge trigger warning: be aware that there are repeated instances of sexual assault in this book.

Extremely well written story that was at times difficult to read due to the subject matter. The characters were very well written and the story was full of human emotion and strength of will. A story I will not soon forget. I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

I was captivated by this book right from the beginning. Although aware of the concentration camps, I was not aware of the Russian Gulag in Siberia. This book was aptly titled as Cilka’s life was truly a journey. I am always astounded by both the inhumanity to man done by man and the courage to survive what appears to be a hopeless future. I highly recommend this fascinating and thought-provoking book.

Also reviewed at B&N and Kobo under the name IrishEyes430

Cilka's Journey from St. Martins Press is a follow up to the best-selling The Tattooist of Auschwitz. I'll be honest, I didn't read that one. When it came out, I felt like there's only so much "inspired by a true story" WWII fiction a human can take in during a lifetime. But when I read the synopsis of Cilka's Journey, I knew I MUST read this.

A woman who only did what she was forced to do to survive a concentration camp. And then at war's end she was imprisoned again in a Siberian Gulag? The shocking injustice caught in my throat and I clicked request on @netgalley faster than anything. I often feel like WWII literature and film focus on the brave soldiers who fought; men who resisted or escaped. Beyond Anne Frank, Irina Sendler, and Corrie Ten Boom, I've never seen enough meaty information on women in WWII. Until now.

Author Heather Morris was only able to come up with the bones of Cilka's inspiring life, so she fictionalized the account based on the massive amounts of research done by herself and others. The novel born of their analyses is nothing short of amazing.

The texture of the detail in this book is something you can almost reach out to touch--the severe climate of Vorkuta, the prisoners as people, the lengths they went to to create a life in the harshest place imaginable. This book is so rich in the compassion, connection, cameraderie, and contention between women.

I'm hoping someone out there in Hollywood will grab this masterpiece and hawk it to netflix as the limited series event of the year (or next year, or whatever year!). There's no way to do this story justice as a simple 2-3 hour film. I need to be able to binge this, to immerse myself for hours in the bravery, horror, and humanity that made up the life of Cilka Klein and others like her.

4.5★s
“What you are doing, Cilka, is the only form of resistance you have – staying alive. You are the bravest person I have ever known, I hope you know that.”

Cilka’s Journey is the second novel by Australian author, Heather Morris and is a sequel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, featuring one of the secondary characters from that story, Cecelia Klein (Cilka). When Russian soldiers liberated Birkenau in January of 1945, Cilka hardly dared believe her ordeal was over. And it seemed that it wasn't.

The Russian agency overseeing the camp quoted from a report on Cilka stating that she collaborated with the Nazis (a position of privilege in a concentration camp, double-edged sword that it is, is bound to engender resentment). For this, she was found to be an enemy of the Russian state and a spy, and was sentenced to fifteen years’ hard labour, to be served at Vorkuta Gulag in northern Siberia.

Even though she had already experienced much of what the were being subjected to, it seemed, at first, that each new day brought some fresh hell. Wary of doing anything that might set her apart as in Birkenau, Cilka hesitated when a doctor at the short-staffed hospital, impressed by her languages and her speed of learning, encouraged her to train there as a nurse. When she reluctantly agreed, she made sure to share any advantage her position gave her with the women in her hut.

While Morris never got to interview Cilka the way she did Lale for the Tattooist of Auschwitz, her research is clearly extensive, and she explains in her notes that the story is fiction built on the bones of fact. War, like any adversity, brings out the worst and the best in people. Thus we see that these women, as prisoners of war and as political prisoners, are subjected to deprivation, cruelty and abuse; we also see that some go out of their way to show kindness and care to others.

Morris touches on the murky subject of collaborators (and the stigma attached thereto) if indeed the behaviour of a sixteen year old Jewish girl in a concentration camp, in fear of her life, who is put into an unsolicited position of authority and has to endure regular sexual assault by German officers, could be ever be deemed, as Cilka’s was by the Russians, as collaboration. Could any of us say how we might act, put in the same position? What is clear is that Cilka was resilient and very courageous. A moving and thought-provoking read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and St Martin’s Press and Echo Publishing