This subject matter was right up alley. I had study this in university for years but I just could not get through this book. I kept putting it down and would forget what happened when I picked it back up. I am going to stop reading this.

The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Dr. Edith Eva Eger is a memoir as well as a book that will guide you to overcoming your past and thriving. The Choice tells us about how Eva survived the horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp. I had a hard time getting through these parts, I cried, possibly more than I would have, as I recently found out that I'm Jewish, my mothers Yiddish last name probably should have been my hint, and this has had an impact on me. I cried for Eva and what she endured and what she lost. I cried for all of the people murdered in the Holocaust. I cried for my people, the Jewish people.

This is not however, just a book of sorrow, it is a book of strength and endurance. It shows the power of forgiveness and the strength of the human spirit. Eva shows us, by returning to Auschwitz, how to forgive even the most orrendous of people. I believe anyone who has been hurt in any way can find a peace and strength in this book. If there are books you have to read, make this one of them, put The Choice by Edith Edger at the top.

This is a beautiful, absolutely pitch-perfect memoir by Dr. Edith Eger. I was not familiar with Dr. Eger prior to reading this, and I am grateful to her for sharing her story.

The book is organized into four sections: Prison, Escape, Freedom, and Healing. I would describe it as three parts memoir, one part therapy. It would be enough, simply for nanogeneraian Dr. Eger to tell us her story and share the important events she witnessed in her lifetime. But she is not satisfied to make this book only about her experience. She is clearly a committed therapist who understands pain and forgiveness uniquely, and has a very powerful message that to truly live a full life, we need to make the choice not only to forgive, but to forgive ourselves.

I describe the book as pitch-perfect because from the introduction, Dr. Eger explains that there is no heirarchy when it comes to suffering. She does not tell her story so that the reader will minimize their own suffering in comparison, that would just be another way of judging ourselves. As a therapist, she understands that someone whose suffering may seem superficial to others, is generally attributed to something much more deeply rooted, and representative of a much larger pain. I find it extraordinary that she is capable of empathizing with others to this extent. When you read her story, and I hope you do, you will understand the extent of her personal suffering. Not only what she endured in her youth, but as an adult coming to terms with everything she lost, and finding a way to let it be her strength, instead of imagining what her life would have been had it not been interrupted by the cruelty and injustice of the Holocaust. I can not find the words to describe the depth of her compassion.

Life is about choices, and I am guilty of the destructive thinking that Dr. Eger drescribes in the book. In my Midewestern upbringing, I was raised to take responsibility for my choices. I pride myself in this responsibility. What this book has made me realize that often in my experience, this has been a punishing idea - there are choices, and there are consequences. But life is not that simple, there are choices and more choices. Often we choose to punish ourselves. In doing so, we are imprisoning ourselves with our own beliefs - of not feeling worthy, a fear of making a bad choice... The author is open about choices she made in her own life, and that they may not have been the best ones. Everyone suffers. Everyone has endured the consequences of their own poor choices. But to live our best life, we must continue to make choices, instead of allowing ourselves to be imprisoned by our past.

Thank you, Dr. Edith Eva Eger for sharing your story and your wisdom. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of The Choice for review.

This book was both heartbreaking and hopeful. Very reminiscent of Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning (a bit by design -- the author maintained a correspondence with him). Dr. Eger user her experiences -- both personal and professional -- to build a message of hope and healing. She compassionately shows the universality of suffering and of the capacity to heal oneself. I very highly recommend. Note: trigger warnings apply (sexual assault, holocaust, PTSD)