a heartbreaking , heart opening book, a difficult subject what survivors endured after they were rescued, i knew some about what happened to people, often terrorized when they returned to their home countries but not about these labor camps for innocent but accused. her strength, determination and heart uplifted the painful story

If you are a fan of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, you will love Heather Morris’ new book, Cilka’s Journey. We meet Cilka Klein in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, but now we get to read about Cilka’s story.

At the young age of sixteen, Cilka becomes a prisoner of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942. She catches the eye of the high-ranking Commandant and she has to allow horrible things to happen to her in order to survive. After nearly three years at Auschwitz, the Soviet Union liberates the concentration camp and Cilka finally dares to hope that she will be free. Cilka is then charged as a Nazi collaborator and is sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in a Siberian gulag. Cilka’s story continues as she spends the following years as a prisoner.

Last month, I read The Tattooist of Auschwitz and it was a powerful and heartbreaking novel, but Cilka’s Journey has topped it in my book. This book is much longer and I appreciate how Morris developed Cilka’s story much more than she did Lale’s and I love it more because of that. We experience the extreme suffering that Cilka and the other characters go through, but Morris is also able to remind us that there can be moments of love and hope in some of the darkest times.
(Trigger warning: Rape)

5/5 stars!

It is available now and I highly recommend that you add it to your TBR list!

I appreciate @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

Incredible follow -up to the Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka's story of strength and courage in a time of adversity is a story that needs to be told.

Cilka's Journey is a fantastic book. It is a follow up from The Tattooist of Auschwitz, however, you could read this as a stand-alone as well. Cilka is plagued by the curse of perpetually being imprisoned for doing what she needed to do in order to take care of others and survive the unspeakable events happening in 1940s Europe. Despite all odds stacked against her, Cilka survives it all, but not without additional obstacles to overcome. Heather Morris beautifully writes out Cilka's story for the rest of the world to know. The genre of biographical fiction is a tricky one and within this book, Morris has given us a captivating story of struggle and survival.

As part two of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka's Journey follows Cecilia Klein in the aftermath of her liberation from Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Soviet Union. Cecilia Klein or Cilka Klein survived Auschwitz by enduring constant rape and abuse at the hands of two senior officers who made her the head of Block 25, a block in which women were reassigned on their way to the gas chambers to keep her and what they were doing to her hidden away. As punishment for her 'role' in the concentration camp, Cilka is sentenced to 15 years in a Soviet work camp in the heart of Siberia and this book is a fictionalised account of her experiences there.

One of the things I loved about The Tattooist of Auschwitz was how the lives of others who endured the cruelties of Auschwitz-Birkenau were incorporated into the love story of Lale and Gita. One character whose story I wanted to know more of was Cilka's and Heather Morris writes in her author notes at the end of this book that the majority of the letters she received after publishing The Tattooist related to Cilka and what happened to her.

The idea that Cilka was punished as a co-conspirator for being raped by her captors is sickening. And hers is just one of the many stories of women punished for their abuse or left to carry the guilt of an injustice enacted against them. Although fictionalised, this is a true story of a real person who suffered many of the things written about in the novel with embellishments here and there and a dash of artistic license thrown in for good measure.

I am grateful to Heather Morris for first bringing me the story of Lale and Gita and secondly for bringing me the story of Cilka. I listened to The Tattooist on audiobook and therefore had a much different response to that than I did to this book. Morris's use of short simple sentences written in the present tense with the feel of stage directions or directorial notes worked in audiobook form as it keeps the listener actively engaged in the story. It, unfortunately, didn't quite work for me in the written form. The content of the story was almost good enough to carry itself. However, with the writing style, I ended up feeling like I was reading the author notes and chapter outlines and not the finished text.

As a plot device, I also struggled with how every single man Cilka seemed to come in contact with fell in love with her. That irked me.

This is a powerful and important story but ultimately I enjoyed reading the notes on the text at the end more than the actual novel and I wonder if it would have been better as a research historical book rather than a fictionalised novel.

Cilka's Journey is a fictionalized story that is inspired by what Heather Morris discovered about real-life Cilka who is a character in The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Cilka survived Auschwitz and then was sent to a labour camp for collaborating and sleeping with the enemy. Heather Morris captures what it could have been like for Cilka and the other prisoners in the camp.

Cilka's bravery and strength shine through here as we see her care for prisoners and her friends. It is an inspiring, hopeful story of an ordinary young woman who becomes an extraordinary woman under unimaginable circumstances. Cilka's actions throughout the story show us the goodness in people at times of horror and the strength needed to survive. I highly recommend it.

I might be the only person who hasn’t read ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’. It’s on my TBR List, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. This book is a follow-up, but can stand alone. I had no problem following along. It has been a while that a book has kept me reading into the early morning hours. Ms. Morris is an excellent storyteller, sucking you in from the first page with this little known (at least for me) part of history. These stories need to be told and retold so we never forget and never allow it to happen again.

This story follow Cilka, who is freed from Auschwitz but instead of starting over, is sentenced to 15 years in Siberia. This story is moving, sad, but also speaks of the will to live and love. The human spirit is an amazing thing, especially when faced with adversity. You never know what you will do when faced with issues as heinous as reported in this story.

I received an ARC of this book. Opinion is mine alone. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press.

This heart warming and heart wrenching sequel to Tattooist of Auschwitz lived up to my expectations. I couldn’t put it down! While this is a novel, it’s Inspired by real people and true events during many years at a Siberian prison camp. You’ll fall in love with Cilka’s strength, bravery and selflessness all while having your heart broken reading about the events that happened to millions during this time period. Heather Morris write beautiful, must read, novels!

I loved The Tattooist of Auschwitz and had hoped for as much from Cilka’s Journey. Heather Morris’s book didn’t disappoint. Cilka’s Journey was excellent! It continues the story of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp survivor, Cilka Klein. Once freed from the concentration camp Cilka is charged with collaboration with the enemy and taken to a Soviet gulag in the arctic circle. The reader is told of Cilka’s efforts not only to survive but to also assist fellow prisoners.
This book flowed with with feeling and leaves reader wanting yet another compelling book based on The Tattooist’s plot.

This was one of my most anticipated books of this year. I was excited when I received an email providing a "Read Now" notice and immediately downloaded it. Loving The Tattooist of Aushwitz, I was eager to start on this book. Unfortunately, it was a let down. The story felt so unreal with Cilka always being brave, always kind, and always sacrificial. It was just too much. There was no emotional connection either. I was hoping for a tear jerker or a pull of the heartstrings. Sadly to say it was disappointing.

This reads like a sequel or parallel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz and is told from Cilka's point of view after the Nazi Power has fallen. Immediately the story grabs your attention and tugs at your heart. You can't help but wonder what other hell could Cilka possibly survive in her lifetime?! I really enjoy Heather Morris' style. It's detailed without being ornately adorned with unnecessary words or descriptions. She gets right down to business and in the process makes her books a quick read but a good one!

I am one of the few people who has not read The Tattooist of Auschwitz. So why read book 2 in the series? Because I was interested in reading a book of historical fiction based on a brave and extraordinary survivor named Cecilia "Cilka" Klein as described by Lale Sokolov, the tattooist himself.

There has to be more ways to stay alive than to be witness to so much death.

After being freed from a concentration camp in 1942, Cilka is charged with sleeping with the enemy and sentenced to 15 years of slave labor in a Siberian prison camp.

Time stands still for Cilka as she remembers lining up to go into the other place. That line led to an existence that bore no end date. This time she knows her end date, should she survive to see it. Fifteen years. Will having an end date make the labor more endurable? Is an end date even to be believed?

Cilka is an unforgettable young woman who is wiser than her years due to her horrific 3 years as a Holocaust survivor, and then unfairly condemned as a Siberian prison camp survivor. Her intelligence and ability to learn quickly lands her a job in the prison hospital where she saves the lives she couldn't at the concentration camp. However, the threat of death is an everyday occurrence and she knows that hope for a different life is something she no longer considers.

This outstanding book stands alone as an emotional and graphic reminder of the horrors of purging societies of their enemies. A page-turner to the end on the hope of seeing Cilka's freedom and happiness. Recommend highly!

Thank you to Ms. Morris and St. Martin's Press for giving me the opportunity to review this book with no expectation of a positive review.

Cilka's Journey is the followup story to The Tattooist of Auschwitz. It chronicles the story of Cilka Klein, one of Lale's fellow prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau. I was initially under the impression that Cilka was kept as the enslaved mistress of the Nazi leader of the concentration camp. As I read this book, it appears that she was actually sexually abused by not one, but two of the officers in that camp. They placed Cilka on a block by herself where the only other people who were placed there were typically sent to the gas chamber soon after. Cilka was often viewed by other prisoners as callous and harsh because she seemed unaffected by this. Those people didn't know that she didn't dare show her emotions to the Nazis for fear of their response.

When the war ended and the camp was freed, Cilka is arrested as a Nazi collaborator because she "slept with the enemy." She is sentenced and sent to Siberia to serve a fifteen year sentence. It was appalling to me that no-one understood that this young woman, who was only sixteen at the time that she was initially taken by the Nazis, was only trying to survive.

Prior to writing Cilka's Journey, Heather Morris did extensive research. She had a small amount of information from her interviews with Lale and what Gita had learned from meeting with Cilka years after they left Auschwitz. However, she needed to know more so she did detailed research into Cilka's life, including her time in the Soviet Gulag. Therefore, this book is more of a fictional account based on some fact because Ms. Morris had to try to fill in many gaps. She did an incredible job of painting a gritty and brutal picture of what Cilka's life was like. Her life was never easy but she continued to do whatever she had to in order to survive and to try to help others to do so as well. This book is honest about the rapes, the lack of food, the abuse, the lack of medical attention by some, and the impact of the weather. Cilka seemed to value her own life so little through most of this book. She continually put others ahead of herself. It seemed that when opportunities presented themselves for her to improves her situation, she always gave the chance to someone else who needed it "more" than her. However, she did stumble into an opportunity to work in the hospital early on and that led to many other opportunities for her, including becoming a nurse (unofficially). In this one thing, she truly did benefit.

Throughout all of the harshness, Cilka eventually does find love and in that she is able to love herself again as well. Cilka's undying spirit was so inspiring. She experienced so many atrocities and kept getting back up every day and moving forward. She wasn't always proud of the things she had to do, but she knew that it was about surviving. It was truly an incredible story and I soaked up every bit of it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

In 1942, 16-year old Cilka was sent to Auschwitz and for 3-years, she did everything she could just to survive. a SS Officer took a liking to Cilka and while she got privileges that other prisoners didn't, she had to endure nightly abuse for over two and a half years.

Now in 1945, Cilka is a prisoner yet again, accused of sleeping with the enemy, and is sent to a Russian work camp. Her sentence is 15-years. Cilka instantly connects with women in her block, but she feels like an outsider, as this isn't her first time as a prisoner. She gets noticed right away by a doctor and she becomes a nurse trainee, receiving special treatment yet again.

But Cilka isn't selfish and uses her new place of power to help others who are less fortunate. She is compassionate and wants to make positive changes within the hospital. But Cilka sees things she will never forget until the day she dies--death, despair, pain, heartbreak.

Cilka reflects on her time at Auschwitz and a friend of hers who fell in love, despite their dire conditions. And she wonders if she will ever fall in love, or if she will remain numb to every type of feeling forever.

Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris follows a character that is often mentioned in Morris' 2018 release, The Tattooist of Auschwitz. This is such a hard story to read, but also both fascinating and eye-opening. I really enjoyed seeing Cilka's work in the hospital and all the different departments she worked in. We see Cilka currently as well as flashbacks to her childhood and her time at Auschwitz. I do feel like Cilka was somewhat of a martyr and after a while, that aspect of her personality grated on me. I found this to be an emotionally impacting read, but I didn't fall in love with it like I thought I would. I still would highly recommend to fans of WWII fiction. 3.5/5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Heather Morris for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Cilka Klein should be honored and celebrated just like Harriet Tubman or Mother Theresa. She did what she had to do to survive the Holocaust so the Russians punished her by sending her to the Gulag in Siberia. I am not sure I could survive Siberian conditions with a hotel, let alone barracks with very little heat. Throughout all of her ordeals she always tried to help others more than herself. Life in the Gulag was incredibly difficult but her initiative and brains helped her to become a nurse and help so many. I am so glad she was able to find true love in the midst of the madness. My only wish is to know more about Cilka and her life after so many years of just surviving. Unfortunately it is probably too late to truly punish those who mistreated her.

Cilka's Journey takes readers on an arduous, heartbreaking journey from the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau to a brutal prison camp in Siberia. Cilka has somehow survived three years incarcerated at a concentration camp, only to find herself imprisoned again, charged as a Nazi collaborator. Cilka is incredibly brave and somehow finds the strength and will to survive. I found her to be such an incredible and inspirational character. The author did an incredible job telling this story, with brutal honesty and stark details, but also with a sense of hope and resilience.

Its hard to say you enjoyed a book that is about so much suffering, but I did. It brought another aspect to concentration camps that most people don't think about - what people do to survive that others than condemn them for. Poor Cilka. She just wanted to survive.

It's certainly not an easy read but I really feel its our duty to read books about the holocaust so we don't forget.

As always, St. Martin's Press has published another fascinating read.

I became interested in Cilka’s character when I read the “The Tattooist of Auschwitz.” I was pleasantly surprised when I learned there was to be a sequel featuring Cilka.

This book for me was an amazing read of a young woman’s inner strength and will to survive despite insurmountable odds first in Auschwitz for 3 years and then was sentenced to a Siberian prison camp for 15 years of hard labor.

Cilka is probably one of the most selfless characters that I have probably ever read about in terms of helping others despite her own suffering, even when she was given opportunities to receive help for herself.

Thank you Netgalley and St.Martin’s press for extending me an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review.

It’s #pubday for Cilkas Journey!
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I’m grateful to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for my review copy!
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This book follows Cilka’s life after Auschwitz, though there are multiple flashbacks to her time there throughout the book.
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Unlike the first book, this one focused on Cilka’s life and her friendships she made at the camp, and not about any romantic entanglements.
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I’ve read a little about the Gulag, but was grateful for the chance to read more.
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I give the book four stars, because I honestly couldn’t connect to Cilka emotionally.

CILKA’S JOURNEY by Heather Morris is her follow up masterpiece after The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Those that have read her first know what to except from this talented author.
Preface to my review. I’ve read so many – some might say too many books based on the abject horror and inhumanity of the Holocaust or as it is commonly referred to in Judaism as the Shoah. Shoah literally means calamity. You see Holocaust connotes a sacrifice and historians should all agree that there was no sacrifice. Unless you call giving in to basic hopelessness, losing your self-worth, humility, modesty a sacrifice. Some instantly perished because of their inability to fight for these human rights much less defend themselves against what was for the most part unknown. Others simply fought in vain. Some somehow managed to survive.
For most if not all survivors of the Shoah their lives would never be considered normal. The horror of what they saw or experienced remains in their conscious or subconscious. We often asked a person close to us how he survived and managed to keep two siblings alive. We were always met with silence.
CILKA’S JOURNEY is about a young girl caught up in this madness and forced to make unthinkable decisions or choices in order to stay alive. That became Cilka’s mantra – stay alive.
What would you do to stay alive. No one should dare condemn another soul the right to try to survive amidst barbarians, murderers, sadists and psychotics. And don’t doubt for a moment these were Cilka’s monsters. Any questions watch Shoah which is nine hours of witness testimony.
If you question what Heather Morris illustrates in CILKA’S JOURNEY then you need to look at the real facts of this terrible time in our history. Cilka is indeed brave and as resourceful as possible considering the total lack of tools in her personal arsenal. That is the picture Heather Morris so succinctly draws for her readers in CILKA’S JOURNEY. CILKA’S JOURNEY is a difficult book to read. It will fill you with great sadness and anger. There isn’t a person alive that can fathom being that helpless. And Cilka isn’t alone with her challenge. She has an community of ragtag people that are subjected to the same inhumanity. She also has an audience of captors that indulge their every fantasy at the expense of their prisoners.
Heather Morris makes sure that you, the reader, understand that this is not a prison story. This is an extermination camp. Conditions are beyond what any person could comprehend but Heather Morris makes sure that it is accurately described. CILKA’S JOURNEY is about putting one foot in front of the other no matter what obstacles are put in your path. If you want to read a story about bravery and commitment than look for CILKA’S JOURNEY by Heather Morris.