Book #56: Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris
Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is Heather Morris' follow-up to "The Tattooist of Auschwitz", and also is based on conversations she had with the eponymous tatooist, Lale Soklov, about Cilka Klein, who he meant while in the concentration camp (also mentioned in the first book a couple of times).
I thought this would be another novel set in the Nazi concentration camps, but it opens with Cika's liberation by the Russians in 1945, only to be immediately accused of whoring herself to the Germans, and sent to a Siberan gulag (Russian for prison camp), where the conditions are arguably worse than during the holocaust.
The novel is very harrowing at times, probably not surprising, and involves scenes where women are raped by prison guards, but quite early on in the book, Cilka proves her medical skills, and is offered a job at the gulag hospital. One of the main plot threads throughout the rest of the book involves conflict between her and the other inmates.
There are some more poignant and touching sub-plots in this book though, including a character who gives birth in the gulag, and also Cilka's relationships with male characters (although she ends up in at least one toxic relationship).
There are also several italicised sections that flash back to Cilka's past, including her life before she was captured, and also in Auschwitz-Birkenau, which feature Lale.
Overall, I thought this was even better than its predecessor, and I was compelled to keep reading, just hoping for Cilka to have a happy ending. According to the blurb at the start, this book is completely fictional, so I am not sure how much of it really happened. I'd like to think all the good things that happened are true.
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