I was SO excited when I saw this book come across in Netgalley. I just finished the first novel "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" a few weeks ago and fell in love with all the characters. I find this so incredible that a lot of this book is a true story; what a strong and resilient woman who loved life, her friends and to help others. I wish she was alive to tell us her story firsthand but this book was so well written & I loved every second of it.

Cilka’s Journey is an incredible account of one brave young woman who survived the horrors and inhumanity of Auschwitz and the notorious Vorkuta Gulag. It’s extremely difficult to even imagine anyone living through such a monstrous daily life, let alone surviving it. We all have read about these nightmarish times during and after WWII. Those memories are hidden in the recesses of the tortured and Heather Morris has done her research and has written a novel describing unthinkable savagery. Five Stars. Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Villa was sixteen when she first entered Auschwitz. She was there for almost three years. The things she had to endure while there are horrifying and unbelievable. She had two choices live or die. Later it was determined that she was a war criminal and sentenced to fifteen years in Siberia. There she also had two choices, live or die. She was able to find a friendly female doctor who trained her in nursing and surgical procedures. She also helped another doctor in the maternity ward. There she delivered babies.
The winters were unbearable with forty below temperatures and snow almost all year round. She was able to make friends with the women in her hut. Women that became family.
A remarkable story of a brave woman. Whose strength and endurance and courage helped her survive the horrific conditions of a death camp.
Extraordinary!!

What a great read! I couldn’t tear myself away once I began reading. Heather Morris does a wonderful job of really connecting the reader to Cilka and bringing us all along on her journey through such a heartbreaking time in our history. Although it’s not a necessity to read The Tattoist of Auschwitz before Cilka’s story, what a wonderful feeling it was to have snippets of their journey sprinkled in throughout the book from a new prospective. I highly recommend Cilka’s Journey to anyone who finds themselves yearning to read about the survivors of such a powerful period in history.

Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris


Have you read yet The Tatooist of Auschwitz? It's the story of Lale and Gita Sokolov's survival in Auschwitz. Of course, to survive many other people needed to be trusted and included. One of those people involved with Lale and Gita was Cilka. Cilka was just a teenager and she was beautiful so of course she attracted the attention of the commandant. Cilka was made his mistress and given unbelievable power over the other female prisoners. But, when you are in her position, you do what you need to do to survive. These things you do are not easily forgotten.

When the war was over and the camp liberated by the Russians Cilka's journey was not over. She was accused of collaborating with the enemy and forced to exchange one prison for another, she is sent to Siberia along with anyone else the Russians didn't trust.

But Cilka already knows how to survive. You dig deep. And even though she is once again forced to be someone's mistress and work and live in a cold that can only be imagined she knows she has brains and spunk and heart and you keep your head down. A female doctor in the camp sees this and takes Cilka into her world of healing, however that can happen in a place like this. Healing can happen in many ways. Cilka forms friendships, shows heart and compassion to the sick and injured and eventually she discovers she has even more strength than she ever knew.

The Tatooist of Auschwitz is a true story and so is Cilka's

Heather Morris’s Cilka’s Journey is an insightful novel that deals with an issue little explored in fiction: the treatment of women in the Soviet Gulag. While Cilka’s Journey may be fiction, it is based on conversations with Lale Sokolov (the tattooist of Auschwitz) about Cilka, from others who knew her, and the authors impressive research. Cilka, a Czechoslovakian, was sent to Aushwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp for being a Jew. At liberation, she was wrongly convicted of working with the enemy. She was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor and sent directly to the Soviet gulag in Siberia. She was fortunate to obtain work duty in a hospital under a brilliant doctor who was willing to share her knowledge, give her training, and opportunities. She and the other women in her prison “hut” battled for trust, hope, and survival. At the Gulag, she again finds herself in survival mode over ethics. She does what she has to do in order to live. I found myself fully immersed in this story, a subject I had very little knowledge of. Two weeks later, I’m still processing the story. Rich in history and woven with a mix of real-life and imagined incidents and characters, the story gives history a human face to the awful treatment of those imprisoned at the Gulag. The author did an excellent job of taking history and writing a novel that tells a dark tale, yet honors Cilka, and making it readable. This is a story that tells of a remarkable journey and needs to be read.
Note: I have not read The Tattooist of Auschwitz which this is a follow-up to. Many have said to read that first, but I feel that Cilka’s Journey can be read as a stand-alone. I most definitely will read The Tattooist of Auschwitz in the near future, since Cilka’s Journey was an incredible read.

I wasn’t a huge fan of The Tattooist of Auschwitz for a few reasons (embellishments, lack of clarity on whether it was fact or fiction, lack of research in some areas etc), but I wanted to give Cilka’s Journey a try as I wanted to know more about the woman who had found herself in such a difficult position in such a terrible place in Auschwitz at the young age of 16. I finished this novel feeling the same way I felt with the first: unfinished, slightly discontent, but also feeling guilty about not feeling better about the novel.

Cilka Klein arrives in Auschwitz at the age of 16 and survives three years of the hell that it was, enduring the “special treatment” of rape and assault by camp commanders. After Auschwitz is liberated she is tried and convicted to 15 years of hard labor by a Soviet court, her crime being that she slept with the enemy. Cilka then goes on to survive 10 years of the Vorkuta gulag in Siberia, where she ends up meeting her future husband. After their release they spend the remaining 5 decades of their life together in (then) Czechoslovakia. This novel however only really depicts Cilka’s life in the gulag, with some flashbacks to Auschwitz, and a few others to her life before WW2.

There are so many parts of Cilka’s story that need to be told (her role in Auschwitz and why she did what she had to do to survive, the fact that rape is used as a weapon in war, Stalin’s gulags and purges etc), but in order to give readers a real, detailed overview of the horrors that everyday people were forced to survive I feel that one 400 or so page novel just can’t do it. In Cilka’s Journey we see the world she is forced to live in through her eyes, we see the conditions of the gulag and the set up through her eyes, but there is not enough information provided on exactly how, where, why, and who. Criminal trusties appear, but how did they get there in the first place? What happened to Cilka’s friends after her release? How do the doctors and nurses get there and where do they go next? How are the prisoners convicted in the first place (Cilka’s trial is barely depicted, there are more pages on her journey to Vorkuta than on the conviction). And so on. I feel like I needed more, rather than a sort of passing overview.

We MUST talk about the gulags and the way they caused generations of trauma that is still very visible today (my stepfather’s parents and grandparents were ripped from their homes and sentenced to hard labor in Siberia, and that time spent there is still visible generations later). And we just talk about how women were sent to Siberia and how they survived the camps. But there is so much more to tell. Maybe I am asking too much from one book, but maybe I am just not content with the mix of fact and fiction, and feel like this novel would be better as a TV series, in the same way that I thought The Tattooist of Auschwitz would too.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance copy of this book!

Cilka’s Journey, the sequel to Tattooist os Auschwitz, is as impactful and haunting as the first book. Cilka’s story of her internment in the concentration camp and then confinement in Siberia is heart wrenching. The fortitude of the human spirit is the catalyst of the story. Based on a true story we follow Cilka through flashbacks while in Siberia to her time existing in the concentration camp in the only manner she could to survive. Her will to survive wavered at times but she never gave up hope. I loved the story but felt at times the flashbacks disrupted the flow of the “journey”. Thank you so much Netgalley for the opportunity to read this story.

Wow! I enjoyed this book as much as I did The Tattooist of Auschwitz! Great book, wonderful story, well written and I will recommend it highly!

As I thought it would be.....this book is FABULOUS. Thank you thank you for allowing me to review this. Heather Morris is an incredible author, bringing important parts of history to the forefront of our lives. And Cilka's Journey is an important piece of history. You can be SURE I'll be raving about this book all over Bookstagram and Goodreads!

Morris' The Tattooist of Auschwitz was very good and based on true stories. Cilka's Journey is the same and is also very good. The story picks up after the liberation of the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau when Cilka is sentenced by the Soviet liberators to 15 years in one of Stalin's labor/death gulags in Siberia. From one concentration/death camp to another - for doing what she needed to do to survive as a beautiful 16 year-old Jew. Just as powerful as Morris' Tattooist, the dialog is well written and the story well developed.

Cilka's Journey is the story of a young Jewish girl that is singled out for her looks in German concentration camps for her looks. This allows her to survive when so many women she comes into contact die, but it results in her being sentenced to the Gulag in Siberia at the end of World War II for being perceived as helping the Nazis. There really isn't any part of her experiences that isn't heartbreaking, and yet despite her shame and anguish she does what for many would be unthinkable - continue to get up every day and live, and hope that by showing concern and compassion for others that someone, anyone, will look at her and see a good person. And there are people that do, that become friends, but unfortunately for Cilka they aren't people that can end her time in the labor camp. This was a beautiful story that once again is a reminder to me that even when I face my own personal battles there are people out there that have dealt with so much worse and survived and even thrived.

Cilka Kline may very well be new favorite person in history. Heather Morris crafted a fascinating and well written narrative of a brave young girl who faced the atrocities of Auschwitz and was liberated only to be taken prisoner for her “war crimes” and entered another period of imprisonment. Cilka is a true heroine who elevated the needs of others above herself. She persevered through at least 13 years of horror and saved and improved countless lives along the way.
I highly recommend Cilka’s Journey for any reader. I have read many historical fiction accounts of WWII and this was the first I have read that touched on the subject of the Soviet Gulags.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for this review.

This book. My goodness. A follow up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which destroyed me, continued with this beautiful, harrowing story. We get to hear more about Cilka after the concentration camp, when she is a prisoner at a camp in Siberia. She is the epitome of a strong character, and I loved the elements of Lale and Gita (from Tattooist) that were woven throughout. Simply amazing.

Heather Morris has written with compassion and sensitivity. The story is emotive, thought provoking, awe inspiring and puts your everyday problems into perspective.

Considering "Cilka’s Journey" is a based on true events, it was very compelling. It's definitely one of only a few books that will stay with me a long time. The story is unforgettable and keeps you thinking about it well after you've put it down.

Although upsetting and saddening, there is such a beautiful story at the heart of the tale that you can't help smiling at. I immediately was able to picture the characters as they were excellently portrayed and I could imagine the whole story with clarity.

This book wasn't as brutal and as hard hitting as some holocaust books I've read although equally saddening, therefore I feel this could be read by slightly younger readers without offending or upsetting.

I can't recommend this book highly enough, it a definite must read and gets 5 stars for a heart wrenching unforgettable read.

With a bit of editing, this will be one of my annual favorite reads! Knowing that it is based upon a true story makes it feel even more chilling as to what one person can inflict on another.

From Czechoslovakia to Auschwitz/Birkenau to Gulag Vorkuta and back to Czechoslovakia Cilka is beautiful and she is a survivor. Her body may be taken, used, and abused but her soul and memories cannot be touched.

Starting at age 16, Cilka's journey through pain, terror, death, friendship, betrayal, and finally love is gently traversed through flashbacks. The plot is carefully constructed and, in the end,, the parts are greater than the whole. Morris’ careful research and interviews of Lale Sokolov create a historical novel that plumbs the depths of systems that oppress and compromise the human spirit. Characters are so real the reader will remember them as people who lived and died under circumstances hard to imagine, yet clearly drawn. The cover draws one into the journey and dismemberment that comes through years of survival in concentration camps and gulags. Although this is a continuance of Morris’ novel Tattooist of Auschwitz, it is a stand-alone novel.

Cilka is based on the true life of a young Jewish woman in the years immediately following WWII. She was sent to Auschwitz when she was sixteen years old and forced to serve a prostitute for the Nazi leaders. As a result, the Russians who freed the camp labeled her a collaborator and sentenced her to 15 years of hard labor in a Russian prison camp in Siberia. The book does an excellent job detailing Cilka’s life prior to and during her time at Auschwitz in short flashbacks which I found to be a very effective writing style as it explained Cilka’s actions and decisions in the present-day Russian gulag. Cilka’s spirit and determination to live the best life possible even in horrible circumstances are examples from which we all can learn. I greatly enjoyed this book and found myself reading when I should have been doing other things. The author, Heather Morris, learned of Cilka’s amazing life while researching her prior book “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” (which I would also high recommend). It is not necessary to read this book first, but I did like the minor interactions between the same people in both stories. I will definitely read future books by this author.

Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris is the heartbreaking account of a young woman who, at the age of 16, was taken by the Nazi's and sent to an internment camp. She was chosen by the Nazi's to serve as a lover to one of the high ranking officials and she did what she was forced to do, overseeing women who were being taken to the gas chambers as well as sleeping with the enemy. When the camp was liberated by the Russians, in spice of the fact that she was a prisoner and forced into these actions, she was seen as an enemy of the state and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in a camp in Siberia. How she survives there is a testament to her strength and the strength of those who survived with her. A compelling novel of tragedy and triumph over the forces of evil that you will remember for a very long time.

Having read 'The Tattooist of Auschwitz' in just a few hours, I had very high hopes of this book. It did not disappoint and I think I read it quicker! Beautifully written on such a sad subject, Would recommend to anyone and will be purchasing a copy when it is released in October.