Cilka’s Journey 4⭐️/5

Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris

4⭐️/5

There’s been some controversy around the historical fiction vs “based on a true story” narrative of Heather Morris’ previous book, “The Tattooist of Auschwitz,” so I wasn’t surprised that this “sequel” (using that term very loosely) is categorized as a novel.

Though despite it all, Cilka’s Journey is a poignant, heartbreaking, unsettling, and thought-provoking story of what it takes to survive. Even if it’s not entirely biographical, it is representative of the experiences of so many.

It follows the story of Cilka, introduced in Tattooist, who was just 16 when she was taken to Auschwitz in 1942. It is there that the commandant forces her to become his unwilling personal prisoner, assaulting her on a regular basis. Despite her horrifying circumstances, she uses her proximity to power to help her friends in the camp.

Unlike her fellow survivors of the brutal concentration camp, Cilka’s story does not end in liberation. When the war is over, she is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp. This is where her story begins.

The Soviet gulags of WWII and post-war was an area in which I was rather ignorant. I learned so much even from this fictional imagining. Soviet gulags were just as brutal, as the prisoners were slaves with the intention to be starved and worked to death.

Despite the gruesome subject matter, Cilka’s enduring will to live despite the continued horrors inflicted upon her was incredibly powerful to read. She tries to remain unseen, as she is afraid of the other prisoners finding out her “crimes” committed in Auschwitz, but her beauty makes her stand out once again, and not in a good way. Though this time she finds other ways to survive the camp, and is chosen to work with the nurses at the prisoner medical facility.

Fans of historical fiction will love this book. I found the writing to be even more elevated in this book than Tattooist, and this story of love and resistance has stuck with me. I’m so excited to read her next book, Three Sisters!