A review by tdowner
Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I first met Cilka in The Tatooist of Auschwitz.  As a prisoner at Auschwitz-Berkenau, she was "saved" from the gas chambers by one of the camp leaders who chose her as his concubine. When the camp was liberated by the Russian army, Cilka was tried and convicted as a Nazi collaborator because of this forced relationship, and sentenced to 15 years in a Siberian labor camp.  This book follows Cilka's journey to the camp, and her survival there, in conditions that were almost as brutal as the Nazi concentration camps. Cilka was pragmatic...do what you must to survive...but never lost her humanity as she built relationships with her fellow hut mates, and used what few privileges she earned to help them survive, too. 

Cilka's Journery, like The Tatooist, are fictional but based on real people and real events.  Cilka was a survivor of Auschwitz-Berkenau, and was imprisoned in Siberia. Some of the people she met in the book are real, some are compilations of people and some are fictional.  Likewise, the specific events are a mix of fact and extrapolation.  In the Afterword, Morris explains where she filled in missing details.  Her books are the result of personal interviews and research, and are a well written mix.
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