This novel is based on the short life of Czeslawa who at the age of 14 was sent to Auchwitz in 1942 and became a number 26947. She would only live for three months.

Each prisoner was photographed and recorded. Wilhelm Brasse took thousands of photographs, he too was a prisoner. Czeslawa is remembered together with others who arrived at the same time. A story but based on some facts.

Well written and well narrated (I listened to the audiobook).

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for my honest review.


While this book was informative, it felt very back and forth and some parts were hard to follow and hard to decipher flashbacks from reality. It is a very factual book, no sugar coating with a lot of statistics.

I'm afraid I'd never heard of Lily Tuck before I read this short novel. I'm still trying to work out why since the writing is just exquisite.

I listened to the audio version, which was beautifully read by Elisabeth Rodgers who, I imagine must have had to put any feelings to one side just to get through the text.

The story of Czeslawa is fictional in that the only thing known about her are the basic facts of her very short life. The rest of the story of her life has been imagined by Lily Tuck. The rest of the book are facts about the invasion of Poland, what happened to its people and the facts about those who ran the camps where so many Polish people lost their lives.

I couldn't stop listening to this book even though it was incredibly hard to hear. I think what made it so horrifying was the juxtaposition of Czeslawa having petty quarrels with other children, worrying about her dog, wondering what happened to other inhabitants of her home town as opposed to the stark facts of how Höss and his men ran the camp, their utter indifference to the things that were done to other human beings and the end that the Poles and their tormentors came to.

This is an extraordinary piece of work. I was moved beyond anything else I've ever read about the Holocaust. This is such a powerful novel that should be on everyone's reading list.

Very highly recommended. It is a difficult book to stomach but all the more important for that reason.

Thankyou so very much to Netgalley and RB Media for the audio advance review copy. It felt like a privilege to read this.

This is a dad book. Of course it is, it's about WWII and Auschwitz. I don't know why I am drawn to these books. Perhaps it is too see that "it could always be worse". Good story, and the narrator did a good job too.

Many thanks to Net Galley and RB Media for an audio ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

There isn’t anything flowery here to soften each blow. These aren’t invented characters assigned false heroics. This a brutal, realistic imagining of a young girl’s life, blended with many other lives, that were all exterminated in Auschwitz. If you want a beautiful book, don’t read this. It will not make you comfortable, touch your heart, or let you cry tears for someone who never existed. It’s a knife, rusty and jagged, with truth carved into its blade.

I am immensely grateful to Recorded Books and NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.