I started this book last night at about 9pm and finished sometime near 4am. The book is compelling. There is no reliance on fictional details to help the story along i.e. no penicillin being available! The story stands on the true facts of what life was actually like and that makes it all the more unbearable yet compelling reading. There is a romance element to the story which will bring tears to your eyes but it is romance in the purest form and not shoved into the story to make it "better." I had to take breaks, the depravity (Ellie manages to convey it but without giving you the more horrific details) of the SS and other prisoners, the lack of humanity not just from the Kapos but ordinary prisoners who were trying to survive, together with the message people still fail to understand - the Nazis murdered the Jews but it wasnt just them but all the others they considered expendable. The book also highlights the humanity of other prisoners, not just the main character, who helped make life more bearable for their fellow inmates. Finally, if anyone is still under the impression the Jews went to the camps like sheep, this account will blow that notion out of the water. At a time when many young people not just in the USA don't understand or even know about the Holocaust, this book should be a must read at senior school. I certainly wont forget it for a long time.