Cilka Kline may very well be new favorite person in history. Heather Morris crafted a fascinating and well written narrative of a brave young girl who faced the atrocities of Auschwitz and was liberated only to be taken prisoner for her “war crimes” and entered another period of imprisonment. Cilka is a true heroine who elevated the needs of others above herself. She persevered through at least 13 years of horror and saved and improved countless lives along the way.
I highly recommend Cilka’s Journey for any reader. I have read many historical fiction accounts of WWII and this was the first I have read that touched on the subject of the Soviet Gulags.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for this review.

This book. My goodness. A follow up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which destroyed me, continued with this beautiful, harrowing story. We get to hear more about Cilka after the concentration camp, when she is a prisoner at a camp in Siberia. She is the epitome of a strong character, and I loved the elements of Lale and Gita (from Tattooist) that were woven throughout. Simply amazing.

Heather Morris has written with compassion and sensitivity. The story is emotive, thought provoking, awe inspiring and puts your everyday problems into perspective.

Considering "Cilka’s Journey" is a based on true events, it was very compelling. It's definitely one of only a few books that will stay with me a long time. The story is unforgettable and keeps you thinking about it well after you've put it down.

Although upsetting and saddening, there is such a beautiful story at the heart of the tale that you can't help smiling at. I immediately was able to picture the characters as they were excellently portrayed and I could imagine the whole story with clarity.

This book wasn't as brutal and as hard hitting as some holocaust books I've read although equally saddening, therefore I feel this could be read by slightly younger readers without offending or upsetting.

I can't recommend this book highly enough, it a definite must read and gets 5 stars for a heart wrenching unforgettable read.

With a bit of editing, this will be one of my annual favorite reads! Knowing that it is based upon a true story makes it feel even more chilling as to what one person can inflict on another.

From Czechoslovakia to Auschwitz/Birkenau to Gulag Vorkuta and back to Czechoslovakia Cilka is beautiful and she is a survivor. Her body may be taken, used, and abused but her soul and memories cannot be touched.

Starting at age 16, Cilka's journey through pain, terror, death, friendship, betrayal, and finally love is gently traversed through flashbacks. The plot is carefully constructed and, in the end,, the parts are greater than the whole. Morris’ careful research and interviews of Lale Sokolov create a historical novel that plumbs the depths of systems that oppress and compromise the human spirit. Characters are so real the reader will remember them as people who lived and died under circumstances hard to imagine, yet clearly drawn. The cover draws one into the journey and dismemberment that comes through years of survival in concentration camps and gulags. Although this is a continuance of Morris’ novel Tattooist of Auschwitz, it is a stand-alone novel.

Cilka is based on the true life of a young Jewish woman in the years immediately following WWII. She was sent to Auschwitz when she was sixteen years old and forced to serve a prostitute for the Nazi leaders. As a result, the Russians who freed the camp labeled her a collaborator and sentenced her to 15 years of hard labor in a Russian prison camp in Siberia. The book does an excellent job detailing Cilka’s life prior to and during her time at Auschwitz in short flashbacks which I found to be a very effective writing style as it explained Cilka’s actions and decisions in the present-day Russian gulag. Cilka’s spirit and determination to live the best life possible even in horrible circumstances are examples from which we all can learn. I greatly enjoyed this book and found myself reading when I should have been doing other things. The author, Heather Morris, learned of Cilka’s amazing life while researching her prior book “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” (which I would also high recommend). It is not necessary to read this book first, but I did like the minor interactions between the same people in both stories. I will definitely read future books by this author.

Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris is the heartbreaking account of a young woman who, at the age of 16, was taken by the Nazi's and sent to an internment camp. She was chosen by the Nazi's to serve as a lover to one of the high ranking officials and she did what she was forced to do, overseeing women who were being taken to the gas chambers as well as sleeping with the enemy. When the camp was liberated by the Russians, in spice of the fact that she was a prisoner and forced into these actions, she was seen as an enemy of the state and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in a camp in Siberia. How she survives there is a testament to her strength and the strength of those who survived with her. A compelling novel of tragedy and triumph over the forces of evil that you will remember for a very long time.

Having read 'The Tattooist of Auschwitz' in just a few hours, I had very high hopes of this book. It did not disappoint and I think I read it quicker! Beautifully written on such a sad subject, Would recommend to anyone and will be purchasing a copy when it is released in October.

This is such a wonderful book! So many emotions and you will never really realize what this girl goes through just to try to stay alive! The characters they are so real,the story plot you will think on this way after you have read this book! I received a paperback copy of this and It's so nice holding the book in your hand to read! The tears,the laughs so many emotions you will feel! Even some of the bad guys at the prison help the prisoners the best they can! All the books you read you shake your head on how humans can treat humans the way they did! Like to see this in a movie! There is some happiness in all of this unhappiness along the way!!

The sequel to "The Tattooist of Auschwitz", this book illustrates the journey of a young girl, Cilka, through the concentration camps of Auschwitz where her job, her way to stay alive, was to sleep with the enemy - literally.

After the war, Cilka is convicted of giving aid and comfort to the enemy during her time at Auschwitz, and is sentenced to fifteen years at a labor camp in Siberia.

I was prepared to think of this book as one more story of the Holocaust, but it isn't. This is a story of perseverance, of wanting to live against steep odds and unthinkable cruelty.

Cilka wants to make up for her political crimes by helping as many people as she can, within the bounds of the barbed wire of the Vorkuta Gulag, a concentration camp in Siberia. She learns to give medical care in the hospital building, and she works in the maternity ward, and as an ambulance nurse. She gains a reputation as a caring and able nurse under the tutelage of kindly Dr. Yelena Georgiyevna, a volunteer at the camp. Cilka does for others and sacrifices for the comfort of others, at her own expense. Friends come and go in and out of her life, sometimes the only thing they have in common is being held captive in the horrible Gulag.

This is a heart-rending story of a young woman who does whatever she must to stay alive.

I grew attached to each of the characters in the first book and was glad to hear there was going to be a book about Cilka. Her journey is incredibly heartbreaking but her strength and resilience is admirable. The author does an amazing job telling the story for those who cannot tell it themselves.

I’d like to thank the publisher for allowing me to read this book through Netgalley for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for accepting my request to read this advanced copy. When I requested this title I knew it was by the same author as The Tattooist of Auschwitz. I had not read it but knew it was a favorite read of many. Cilka's story is based on a real life woman who survived Auschwitz by becoming the mistress to a high ranked leader. After she is liberated she is deemed a criminal for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a prison in Siberia. Cilka, once again, has to do whatever she can to survive her sentence. This is an unforgettable story of courage, love and the undying willingness to survive. Heather Morris research and beautiful writing opens our eyes and hearts to the survivors of the Holocaust.

Another 5 stars for this extraordinary written work of historical fiction by Heather Morris! Whether or not readers have picked up Morris’s first novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, historical fiction lovers will not be able to Cilka's Journey down until they reach the final page. Morris enables her reader to travel back in time to the years of 1939-1945 to witness through the eyes of her protagonist, Cilka as she is forced to endure and survive the most notorious and lethal of the concentration camps, Auschwitz. Even after the camp is liberated, Morris transports her reader to the Siberian work camp, where Cilka must find the strength inside herself to overcome the physical and psychological deprivations she cannot escape. A truly inspiring novel that memorializes an extraordinary woman!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Publishing for the privilege of reading this advanced digital copy! Most importantly, thank you Heather Morris! I cannot wait to see where you take your readers next!

I have a real interest in World War II books and this book did not disappoint. While the subject matter is heartbreaking, it is nice to know that there were still people who cared for each other during very horrible circumstances. It was very interesting and a lot of research had to have gone in to writing this book as the narrative really made you feel like you knew how things looked. It was the first time reading a book by this author, and I will look forward to reading mores titles by Ms. Morris.

I liked this book and I recommend it. That said, it is another novel set during World War II. What makes this book special is the title character, Cilka.
This is not a spoiler, but Cilka is Jewish and goes from Auschwitz during the war to a Russian gulag after the war. Her life is one of hardship. She also carries a kind of survivor's guilt. That's all I'll say about the plot.
The other characters are very well drawn as well. You do feel that you know them, especially the ones she lives with.
And the cold; you feel the cold and the hunger of the gulag as well.
Overall, I thought it was well-written, it drew you in to the place and time, and it told a story I hadn't heard before.

I didn't read the Tattooist of Auschwitz but I understand it to be the first in this series. That book doesn't have to be read to understand this, but if this author is anything to go by, I'd highly recommend both. The painstaking research and emotional journey that Morris had to have gone through in the writing of this book, it rips at the heart.

TW - discussion of sexual assault. Cilka is a Jewish woman from Slovakia who, along with her entire family, were placed in camps during the Holocaust. She made it out, but at a cost that would land her in a Russian Gulag for a decade because of "collaboration." Who can say what they would have done in her position? Can you call what happened to her anything other than rape by Nazis? As Morris says in the book, it's so rarely ever discussed, but why would those monsters be the first to not engage in what is a common oppressive tactic during times of war? Of course they brutalized those women, and in so doing marked them with a lifetime of internalized shame that many would never speak to their families about.

Cilka's story isn't just one of abuse though. It's one of perseverance, overcoming through the extremes of adversity, caring for others in the so limited ways that she had available to her, and ultimately, survival. This book wrung tears out of me by the end. There are no words to describe the depths of sorrow and rage at what occurred to these people. This is an excellent, and timely book and one I can't recommend enough.

Well Heather Morris has manged to blow me away again with her fantastic writing. Cilka's Journey is heartbreaking, harrowing but also a story of hope and friendship. It has given me a small insight as to what went on during those horrific year of imprisonment. The bravery shown by many during what must have been a living hell just amazes me. Brilliant, brilliant read

Cilka's Journey is a terrific novel based on actual events. Picking up from a character in her precious novel, Morris highlights the experience of young Cecilia, Cilka. She exchanged one hell for another after having been liberated from a concentration camp, but then sentence to a Soviet gulag. I enjoyed reading this story. It was horrifying real and heartbreaking. Anyone who experienced the trauma Cilka did had an incredibly strong constitution. I appreaciated the epilogue and the aithor's note at the end that not only explained the real Cilka's life, but also the history of the gulag where she was resided.

I often find it wrong to say that I “enjoyed” books like these, as what these people went through cannot even be put into words and can even be imagined. However, I enjoyed reading this book and reading of Cilka’s story and fight for survival. Although I am not entirely sure which parts of the book are fiction as true, having read other survivors stories, I feel that the book was superbly written and gave a wonderful insight into people’s lives and journeys throughout the Second World War and concentration camps
The author did this book so much justice and despite the harrowing tale, it was a great read. The book deserves nothing but five stars.

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Heather Morris' first novel I was thrilled to read her second work featuring one of her secondary characters. Although calling Cilka a secondary character is an incredible injustice. This was a difficult book to read mainly because it is based on a particularly dark period of history. Having survived the horrors of Auschwitz, Cilka finds herself sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor in the Gulag. Her supposed crime, consorting with the enemy. Based on historical research of the period, Heather Morris has written a moving novel concerning what women such as Cilka experienced during their imprisonment. While the fictional Cilka is a combination of many different women, she is based on a real woman that featured prominently in interviews of survivors of Auschwitz. If you've read the Tattooist of Auschwitz, this is a must read book. While I have read numerous works centered around World War II, I have never read anything concerning the Gulags or even the Soviet experience after the war. I must say the book was well written and informative as much as making you think what became of the people as they were liberated from one camp only to find themselves in a different one.