***I received this book as an ARC on Netgalley from the publisher***

This is Heather Morris' follow up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz (which I recommend you read first). This book tells the story of Cilka, a woman originally placed in Auschwitz for being a Jew who was later sent to the Soviet gulags for helping the Nazis...which she didn't. This is a story of survival, friendship, and the ability to love others in horrible circumstances. This was such a good book I read it in less than 12 hours and still wish there was more.

At 10:50 a.m. I received an email inviting me to read an advanced copy of Heather Morris’ sequel to the Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka’s Journey. At 11:00 p.m., I finished it. Pretty sure that’s never happened before. Good. Book.
I had not read The Tattooist prior to reading this (though it will be delivered today) and it is not necessary to have read it to enjoy Cilka’s Journey. This is a beautifully written, very readable account of Cilka Klein’s story after Auschwitz. Yes, all books from this horrific part of human history are about loss and survival, but this one is also about relationships and the human condition.
The characters came alive and were consistently written all the way through. The story flowed like water and I couldn’t put it down. I really appreciated the additional history included at the end. This is why I read historical fiction.

Thank you NG for the 48 hour window to finish this compelling novel.
I cried at the dinner table, telling my husband about this book that consumed my Sunday. This is the best book I’ve read all summer and my heart continues to grieve for those women in the hut.

I found this book to be absolutely unputdownable, and thus read it in one sitting. You often read about life inside the concentration camps but rarely do you hear anything about the time after. I had no idea that many of the survivors were imprisoned again after being rescued, and especially not for such trivial (i.e nonexsistant) offenses. It is amazing that Cilka or anyone like her actually managed to survive and even thrive after so much injustice and torture.. I can't imagine how devastating it must have been to survive Auschwitz only to be sent to a Siberian Gulag. This book is an incredible story of the absolute strength and tenacity of a young girl determined to survive. That Cilka was a real person who actually went through all of this ( and undoubtedly so much more) makes the book that much more amazing and heartbreaking.

Such a moving, heartfelt book. An emotional story of what happened “after.” A story of resilience and bravery. Wonderful!

Cilka is first introduced in the Tattooist of Auschwitz. Heather Morris weaves a heartbreaking saga of Cilka’s early life drawing on fascinating actual research to tell the story of Cilka’s life. What is different about this historical novel, is that Cilka was a real person and this is her story. After surviving Auschwitz-Birkenau, Cilka becomes a prisoner in the Soviet Gulag. You will fall in love with the other characters and how they are interwoven into the story. Cilka’s Journey is an absolutely outstanding novel of tragedy, fortitude, and hope. For ardent fans of Tattooist, you are in for a wonderful reading experience...for Cilka’s Journey is even better. It is 6 stars!!!!

A story of bone deep suffering with glimmers of hope here and there. Perseverance and survival with no end in sight. A crude doily, a chipped mug with a little flower plucked from frozen, arrid earth. The simple pleasures in life we all take for granted. Cilka's ordeals, punishment, bravery and deep love make for an evocative, emotional read. It is the tale of true sacrifice for those she called her friends, her sisters in survival. It is a tale of toneless brutality at the hands of disinterested, entitled people in power - just because they could. The fact that the book is based on a true story makes it that much more heartbreaking. Well written, well researched - a truly excellent book.

I haven't read the first book yet, but this one works as a stand alone book. It is a very moving story based on a real woman who endured so much trauma and pain, but still helped others as much as possible.

Heartbreaking and riveting. Couldn't put it down. I have never read anything that focused on the imprisonment of survivors and didn't even realize this was something that happened. Cilka is a truly remarkable woman.

This book was received as an ARC from St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Everyone I told about Tattooist of Auschwitz absolutely loved every page they read in the book. I am so excited to see that Heather Morris is coming out with a new book and I have to say, I did like it a lot better than Tattooist of Auschwitz. The book focuses the journey of Cilka a sixteen- year old girl who gets sent to concentration camp in Auschwitz but because of her beauty, the guards gave her special treatment and she literally "slept with the enemy" but in her mind had no choice if that was the key to survival. She later was released but went to a prison in Serbia because she was accused of being involved on the opposite side. She later meets a doctor that is so kind to her that she becomes interested in taking care of patients and finds a passion for medicine and helping out the other female inmates in the prison. This book exemplifies how far life can take you if your heart remains warm, strong, and kind. Cilka despite the circumstances she was under, still remained strong and kind and her life is fuller than ever. I know this book will do really well with our community.

We will consider adding this title to our Historical Fiction collection at the library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

Cilka was the character that left readers wondering at the conclusion of The Tattooist of Auschwitz. This novel, a fictionalized account of Cilka's life, provides the answers. Starting where the author's previous book ended, the story takes Cilka from hope to hopelessness and back again. It is a story of confronting trauma and making the choice to trust and move forward or to let the past define the future. The author uses flashbacks skillfully weaving together the present and the past, adding depth to the story and filling in gaps for those who have not read Tattooist. This book was incredibly hard to put down, I read it in one day. Highest recommendation.

Following closely on the heels of the Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka’s Journey, is another page turning story. Author Heather Morris has grappled with further details on the atrocities faced by Jews and dissidents beginning with the Nazis. This story follows Cilka as she does what she must to save herself and those she cares about, from brutality, often death. “It is hard to articulate the relentless bone-chilling cold, the constant flow of sick, injured and dead prisoners, the humiliation of being imprisoned there.” So Cilka says of her time in the Siberian Vorkuta Gulag, Her unwavering determination, courage and tenacity carry her forward as she faces her fate and her captors. These traits also protect her secret ,traitorous, as some would believe, past. As the main character, Cilka draws the reader in and dares them to witness all she does. This begs the question, how was she able to calm her fears upon seeing the bleeding, the injured and maimed, the severely abused, the dead? The other characters are no less damaged by what they must see and do. Each secondary character has his or her own story. The reader and Cilka find compassion for the oppressed and a justifiable loathing for the oppressors.
The settings and times of this story are only history to most of today’s readers. Yet it remains important to understand the lives behind the stories, to meet and to become a part of the story. It is impossible to read this compelling novel without being aghast at Nazi and Soviet barbarity. It is why you silently and fervently stand with Cilka and the other prisoners as if were in their shoes. A heartbreaking, but wonderful read!

I couldn’t put this down. Hard to read some things but such a wonderfully written book of Cilkas story. This is the story of Cilka that survived the concentration camp only to be sent to a prison. This author is so good at taking history and incorporating it into a book that we can’t get enough of. I highly recommend reading it. Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris

In this story, Cilka does indeed go on a physical journey – from Auschwitz to Siberia – but the real story is about Cilka’s journey of discovering who she is and about her developing her abilities to help others even in horrible situations. At Auschwitz she managed to survive (that story is touched on in The Tattooist of Auschwitz by this same author). In Cilka’s Journey, Heather Morris shows us the real strength that it takes to survive situations that are terrifying and demoralizing. Cilka has already developed much of that strength with what she has survived at Auschwitz and we get windows into that through flashbacks. Now, though, she is in different settings. On the long train ride to Siberia, people are dying around her and she begins to physically and emotionally help some of them. When she gets to the work camp in Siberia where she has been sentenced to spend 15 years, she is put into a hut and work situation with women who are forced by the situation to rely on each other. These are women who do not know Cilka’s back story and the things she had to do in order to survive. The work most do is hard physical labor but Cilka is given an opportunity to work in the camp hospital and that is where she begins to really help others and to know that she is indeed more than her past. By placing Cilka in various parts of the hospital setting, the author is able to tell about the dangerous working conditions, the mostly horrible attitudes toward the worker/prisoners, the lacks in the medical treatment of injured workers, and the maternity/nursery setting for the women who become pregnant. Through all of the story, the author shows us how the women of Cilka’s hut deal with the imprisonment and punishments and deprivations. This story could be depressing because of the situation(s) in which Cilka has found herself. And yet I found it a really a very hopeful book as we see Cilka on her journey of discovering how to be more than just a survivor. Very early in the story, I found myself liking Cilka and wanting to keep reading to find out how she would survive because somehow I could sense she would. I was there as Cilka learns about herself. As the author says somewhat early in the book, “It is this fire, then that keeps her going. But it is also a part of her curse. It makes her stand out, be singled out. She must contain it, control it, direct it”. I was so caught in the story that I read the book in one day. The author at the end of the book says “The challenge of working with history is to find the core of what was true and the spirit of those who lived then.” Heather Morris has indeed done so with this book.

I was fortunate enough to be selected on netgalley to review this book Cilka Journey. It is the second book written by the author of the Tattooist of Auschwitz. Cilka’s story was lightly touched on in the Tattooist story of Lale and Gita. Cilka was a young girl of 16 when she entered Auschwitz and was very beautiful. Some high ranking nazis took advantage of her and used her for their pleasure. This allowed Cilka to live through 3 years of Auschwitz Birkenau. She was the head of a house where the women came before they were hauled off to the gas chambers. They kept her there so the high ranking Nazi’s had easy access to her. She had to help load the women each day on the truck heading for death. Cilka even had to help load her own mother on that cart. After all this abuse, when the Russians came in they charged her with aiding the enemy and being a spy and sentenced her to 15 years in a Siberian work camp. This is that story. Sadly Cilka is real. This is a true story. Lest we never forget. I read this book in one day.

Millions of people have read The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, based on the real-life story of Lale and Gita finding love under horrible circumstances. That book has been called “an extraordinary document”, and “a story of hope and survival against incredible odds”. Another reviewer notes, “I find it hard to imagine anyone who would not be drawn in, confronted and moved.” Cilka, Gita’s friend, was also imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and it is her story that is told in this second companion book to The Tattooist. Cilka’s Journey is historical fiction, based on her life and it is even more compelling, heartbreaking and inspiring.

In the excellent Author Notes at the end of Cilka’s Journey, Heather tells us that tattooist Lale considered Cilka to be the bravest person he had ever known. Cilka’s Journey begins when Cilka, age 16, was torn from her family and condemned to the Nazi concentration camp in 1942, then liberated at the end of the war only to be immediately imprisoned by the Soviet Union. She was then loaded on a box car for three tortuous weeks to a Gulag camp in Siberia north of the Arctic Circle.

What happens to a young girl/woman when staying alive is the only form of resistance she has? What happens when she feels she is an instrument of death? When she has never had any choices? Cilka’s Journey tells of her physical travels and also of her spiritual journey. Cilka survives because she is beautiful, brave, smart and searching for redemption. She survives because somehow humans are able to connect and love even while starving and working in harsh and evil conditions.

One of the most touching parts of the book for me is when the woman in Cilka’s Gulag prison hut celebrate the birth of a baby. They embroider baby clothes made from threads from their sheets and scraps of fabric. It’s hard for me to type that without crying. Another beautiful part of the book is the friendship of Cilka and the woman physician who sees Cilka’s talent and trains her.

The story is told in flashbacks from 1939-1945. The book is written in the third person, I believe deep third person, in the present tense which makes for a vivid and highly immersive story. You will feel like you are there with Cilka and the women, experiencing their fear, hardships, and deprivations. Once you start the book, you will keep reading until the end.

There is an epilogue which lets us know that Cilka and the man with the soft brown eyes she met at the Gulag returned to Czechoslovakia and were married for fifty years. I wonder if Cilka continued her medical work after she was released from the Gulag. This book is an inspiring and important memorial to those who perished and to those who lived to tell, but I wish it had never happened as it’s so unbelievably sad that Cilka’s Journey is based on true events and people.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press, Heather Morris, and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

There exist many stories of the atrocities of world war 11; the levels of cruelty and depravation are beyond the imagination. But there are also many stories of bravery and sacrifice men and women committed to survive and assist in the survival of others. I have often wondered and marveled at the people who had the strength to survive. Cilka Klein is one of those women. She survived not only the cruelties of Auschwitz but also 8 years in a Russian gulag. I never realized that this happened. Her name should be exalted and shouted from the rooftops. She was a very real and exceptional person. I never read the Tattoist of Ausschwitz and will definite do so now

“There was such inhuman, unimaginable misery, such a terrible disaster, that it began to seem almost abstract, it would not fit with in the downs of consciousness”.

Cilka had two choices: death or do as she was told.

Cilka was convicted of working with the enemy, as a prostitute and additionally as a spy. She was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

There is no question of how well written, researched, captivating, brutal, devastating and emotionally GUT WRENCHING the history and storytelling is.
Heather Morris outdid herself!!!!! This is a phenomenal novel of the HORRORS of war...
The HORRORS of humanity!!!
This novel is darker and more intense than her previous book: “The tattooist of Auschwitz”.
There are moments of INSPIRATION....
Moments of ruthless courage - strength - bravery- with ordinary people doing incredible things to help others!
There is love - and there is Cilka...
I’ve almost hit my limit...
the wall....with reading Holocaust stories.
I admit to being drained...
I was also gifted with some happy news about the good people too....
Cilka Klein was the good one. She did what she needed to do....
She made a profound difference to many...
Risked her life...
Survived this war...
This novel brings memory - important memory to an extraordinary woman -
Cilka Klein: I’ll remember you!!!

Thank you - first and foremost author Heather Morris.
Thank you Netgalley and St. Martins Publishing- and their terrific staff who are some of the most hardworking generous people in the book world!

This book was INCREDIBLE. This is the fastest I’ve read through a book in years, and I’m already a voracious reader.

If you are a fan of historical fiction, this is just unputdownable. It goes back and forth from a young woman’s years in a concentration camp to the different but equally horrific place she is sent after she is rescued. It’s based on a true story and I’m just in awe of her strength and bravery.

The characters are going to stick with me for a very long time.

I loved the tattooist of auschwitz (who didn’t) and so just seeing another book available was so exciting!

This book was great!

"Cilka's Journey" by Heather Morris is a work of historical fiction inspired by a real person whom the author's husband (Lale Sokolov, of "The Tattooist of Auschwitz") knew while he himself was in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Cilka Klein, along with her family, was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau when she was just sixteen years old. She survived an incredible three years in the camp by doing a job most people would find unthinkable. Cilka also endured years of rape and sexual abuse by high level Nazi officials.

When Auschwitz was liberated by the Russians, Cilka, accused of collaborating with the Nazis, was sent to the Vorkuta prison camp in Siberia. Imagine surviving the horrors of a Nazi death camp only to find yourself sent to a similar place merely for choosing to survive the death camp! Cilka again finds herself in positions where she must choose unsavory paths just to survive. Despite the new horrors she has to face, Cilka is still able to make friends, help others, and even find a bit of happiness in the darkest of places. Cilka is a remarkable woman and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her triumphing over evil..

"Cilka's Journey" is an extraordinary story of strength and courage, as well as the price one must sometimes pay to live. Though the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps are widely known and publicized, the similar conditions of the Gulags in the Soviet Union under Stalin are lesser known. The writer does not hold back on her descriptions of the prison camp, nor on the emotional toll it took on its occupants. I believe the author wanted to bring to light two methods of torture and control that were utilized by the Nazis (and the Stalinists) but are often overlooked in light of "more serious" crimes-the rape and sexual abuse of women prisoners.

Despite the heavy content, this was an enjoyable read. I enjoyed the author's descriptive writing style; she really made the characters come alive. The plot tugged both tugged at my heart and made me incredibly angry. I also really liked the bit of non-fiction that the author included at the end. It was very interesting to learn a bit about the real person on whom the fictional Cilka was based. Though this novel may be triggering to some, especially survivors of sexual abuse, I would highly recommend it as I believe it is important for everyone to be as educated as possible about these dark periods of human history in the hopes that someday we may become wise enough not to repeat them.

This book is dubbed as a sequel of sorts to "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" by the same author. However, it really can be read as a stand alone book as well. Even though there are references to the first book (which I have not yet read), they are explained enough so that the reader can properly follow the plot of this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading an advanced digital copy of this important and eyeopening book.

Strength from within.

Although this book is fiction it is based on facts researched by the author concerning the people and conditions of Auschwitz and the Russian Gulag in Siberia. The facts are sad but believable considering what was done to the Jewish people and those that did not agree with Stalin's philosophy or were deemed spies for some reason or another, some of them very young.

The story is about a young girl named Cilka and her time spent is both Auschwitz and in the Russian Gulag following. Think how it must have been for a sixteen year old girl separated from her family in the concentration camp and trying to stay alive, trying to help her sister and her friends. It brought tears when she had to put her mother on the truck to take her to be burned in the Auschwitz crematorium ovens.

As if that was not enough when the Russians came and liberated the camp of Auschwitz she was questioned and sent to prison for sleeping with the Nazi's. This was hard to think of as she had no choice in what she did in the camps, do as told or die. Nevertheless she was eventually sent to a Russian Gulag where she was sentences to 15 years hard labor. She was 18 years old now surviving for 3 long years in Auschwitz.

The crux of the story surrounds her time and survival in the Russian Gulag with flashbacks to the German camp. She is lost at first but makes friends with the other prisoner's in the hut she is housed in, especially a 15 year old girl named Jose. She is a strong woman and with no regards to her well being she protects the best of her ability her friends especially her young friend. A woman doctor in the hospital takes her under her wing and helps her with a job in the hospital instead of working in the mines.

While horrible things happen to her and other's in the Gulag she stays strong and focuses on the good that she can do to help other's in the hospital and on the ambulance. She throws herself into her job in order to not think about the horrible conditions of the camp and the awful treatment of the prisoner's there. When given the chance to leave by the Commandant's wife she asks for the release of her friend Jose instead.

One day while on an ambulance run a young man she has a crush on but has never talked to is beaten and left for dead. She takes him to the hospital and helps him live. In the process she falls in love with him and he falls in love with her. She never thought this could ever happen to her.

Although the book has some sad moments, the rapes of the women, the starving with the thin soup and hard bread and the back breaking work in the mines, it also shows the good in people. The other prisoner's in her hut, the doctors that help her. The women make it a home by embroidering doilies form threads from the ends of their sheets, they look out for each other and they become like a family in the midst of a horrible situation they find a way to make this situation just a bit better.

I liked the way the author humanizes the characters and the way that the descriptions are clear and sometimes brutal but true for the situation. I think that the explanation of the Gulags and the research is very informative and a valuable part of the book.

I did not read the first book but this book stands alone and I enjoyed reading it, I learned so much I did not know before. Every time I read a different book on WWII and the Holocaust I learn something new. I still will never understand why the Nazi's were so cruel and why the soviets imprisoned so many that had already suffered so much.

If you have an interest in history and would like to know about the little spoken about Russian Gulags which were in my opinion almost a duplication of the concentration camps you need to read this book, it has so much information. I would recommend it.

Another wonderful brilliant book by Heather Morris. What this young girl had to go through in her young life is unimaginable. These stories that has has brought us absolutely wonderful and heartbreaking at the same time you have so many emotions going through you as you read this book.

Chika's Journey is a beautiful novel written bye Heather Morris. You can tell bye her writing that the author has genuine immense feelings for Chika. This novel made me cry tears of sadness, pain, and happiness it has been a long time since a novel has made me feel such raw emotions for the characters. This is a must read for readers who enjoy reading about the lives that were changed bye Hitler and World War II. I highly recommend Chika's Journey. If I could give 20 stars I would.

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz will LOVE Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris. It tells the continuing story of Cilka, whom we first met in the Tattooist of Auschwitz. Based on the life of Cilka Klein, Morris tells the horrors she endured both in Auschwitz and a Siberian prison camp. It shows the power of human endurance, forgiveness, and love. This was a book I could not put down and found myself finishing at 2 AM. Five stars all around!!

Cilka is a young jewish girl who is sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau at the age of 16. This is the story of how she survives that ordeal and more. She is then moved to Gulag after the war having been found guilty of crimes during the war. Again, she finds she is in a position where she is able to survive, all the while living in fear of the past being disclosed.
The writing is simple and powerful. After a long time I found myself reading the book in a single sitting and crying. Not too many books can achieve that. I will recommend this book to anyone who has the heart to read about the World War and its aftermath.
Its a book which delved clearly into the horrors of the time while still carrying a flame of hope. Cilka is a strong girl, capable of taking most things in her stride. Her various relationships with the inmates around her are so well depicted for all their complexity. A story such as this does not come along often.

Beautifully written novel and a wonderful follow up to The Tattoist of Auschwitz. I recommend you read The Tattoist first, but definitely do not have to if you can't grab a copy. This book will make you cry, make you hopeful, and make you believe in the power of never giving up. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this story about a woman and the things happening to her during the 1940’s. If you like books with a Nazi theme you will like this one. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this excellent book.

Admittedly this is a very hard book to read however it was brilliantly written by Heather Morris who gave lots of information about her research for the telling of this heartbreaking, dark, intense story. The character of Cilka and her background was so real you could just imagine the terror she went through being a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp, forced to be a prostitute then sentenced to Siberia for being a spy and traitor by the Russians. What she does to survive is told in excruciating detail in alternating chapters of previous history. This was such an emotional story told with incredible compassion and truth of this horrible time during and after WWII.

The authors book, Tattooist of Auschwitz, was an awesome read, so when I saw an ARC of her sequel to it on NetGalley, I requested it. This book continues the story of Cilka, first introduced in Tattooist of Auschwitz, and uses flashbacks to the first book throughout. Cilka Klein is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, in 1942. The Commandant at Birkenau, Schwarzhuber, notices her long beautiful hair, and forces her separation from the other women prisoners. Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly given, equals survival. After liberation, Cilka is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to Siberia. But what choice did she have? In a Siberian prison camp, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar, including the unwanted attention of the guards. But when she makes an impression on a woman doctor, Cilka is taken under her wing. Cilka begins to tend to the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under brutal conditions. Cilka finds endless resources within herself as she daily confronts death and faces terror. And when she nurses a man called Alexandr, Cilka finds that despite everything that has happened to her, there is room in her heart for love.

This story, as the first one, is based on the life of a real person as was Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Way up in the Arctic Circle there is a Siberian gulag that goes by the name of Vorkuta Gulag. This was the home of Cilka Klein for 10 long miserable years of her life. Not by choice but as a prisoner of the Soviet Russians at the end of World War ll. We know Cilka from the novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, which chronicled the love story of Lale Sokolov and his wife Gita. All three were prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau during the Nazi's reign of terror. In this sequel, Cilka's Journey, we follow Cilka as she is unfairly punished yet again for crimes that were nothing but trumped up charges that sent her off to a grueling and inhumane work camp, better known as a concentration camp.

As with TToA, Cilka was a real person but the book is loosely based on her life with many liberties taken to create a fictionalized account. A few stories from the lives of others were woven into the story as well as inspirations from the imagination of the author. From what I could tell, Cilka's Journey contains much more fiction than the previous book, in part, because Morris was able to actually meet and compare notes with the real Lale Sokolov whereas the same opportunities were not available for Cilka's story. With that said, Morris did extensive research as to what life was like at Vorkuta for those who spent time there, from the prisoners to the trusties and also some of the employees. Many of the various physical living conditions were laced into the story detailing what everyday life was like as well as how the social groupings created a network of caste systems, often utilizing fear for their own survival tactics.

Cilka, a Slovakian Jew, arrives at Vorkuta straight out of Auschwitz-Birkenau and is housed with 19 other women she must share a cold, flimsy hut with. The others are there for a variety or perceived crimes against the Russian government but Cilka is the only one with previous concentration camp experience. She fears the others will hold this against her, especially regarding what she had to do in order not to be killed, so she tries her best to keep that information to herself. As the ladies do their best to survive from day to day, we get to know a few of the characters whom Cilka develops bonds with. Then there are the "husbands" who often come and visit them. In other words, men who have the run of the place and rape them. This creates its own strange psychological environment amongst the group.

During the day, all of the prisoners must work outside in harsh conditions with little protection. One of the jobs the women are forced to do is to transfer heavy buckets of coal from place to place. Early on, after Josie, a woman Cilka has befriended, has an accident, Cilka manages to obtain a job working in the gulag's hospital. Not only is this job less labor intensive but it provides Cilka with more warmth and food. She takes to this job rather well and it leads to a new passion for Cilka as well as sets the tone for one of the central paths in the story. It also presents different dynamics for Cilka in regards to her relationship with the other ladies in the hut. She knows this and is very cautious for fear of retaliation because she is aware of the jealousy that some of the others might hold against her. Cilka is proactive and makes sure she uses it to their advantage just as much as her own by smuggling food and other items to help make life a little easier for her hut mates.

Ten years slowly go by and Cilka gradually works her way around the grounds learning who she can trust and who she needs to avoid and what she must do just to get by. She also learns much more about nursing and broadens her range within the hospital. Throughout Cilka's Journey, we feel her anguish, her fears, her struggles and even her joys as we get to know what life was like in that faraway land where life is taken one difficult day at a time.

This is a book that I very much liked but have one little issue with. I've always had a problem with books and movies that tend to make the protagonist the constant hero, saint, savior, most loved, and the best at everything. It always comes off like a high school story in Fantasyland. While I knew going into the book that it is Historical Fiction, I wanted to believe everything along the way, yet I couldn't help but not buy into some of what was being presented because of the extreme idealization of the character. This is the one area where I feel that the story manages to make Cilka's story less real and I did not want to think that any of the real parts were not true to life. Because it was based on a real woman's journey into Hell and back, I wanted to know exactly which parts were true and what was enhanced for the sake of a coherent story. In some ways, this was somewhat of a fairy tale; albeit, one that included lots of pain and suffering along the way. Never the less, it was well worth reading.

As a sequel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, there are several references in the book that provide a much richer story for those who have read the previous book. One can still read Cilka's Journey and appreciate it for what it has to offer but I would very much suggest that one do what I did by getting a copy of the first book before you take your journey with Cilka. Not only will you read about how Nazi concentration camps compare to the Russian gulags but you will have a much better understanding of where Cilka came from and what her mindset was like once she arrives at her second stop along the way of her horrendous journey through her young, tortured life from one Hellhole to another.


Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of the eBook for a fair and honest review.

I enjoyed this book so much. Heather Morris is such a fantastic writer and this gripped me as quickly as “The Tattooist of Auschwitz.” Cilka’s story was both sad and moving, because she remained hopeful despite her circumstances. Her strength was so inspiring. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. I will be reading it again, for sure.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and I can't thank them enough. I loved this book. I learned a side of WWII that I was not familiar with: the after the war prisons . Cilka was a strong, resilient, and compassionate woman. Her story is one I am glad I got to learn about. Heather Morris has a skill with historical fiction.

"I just want to live. I need to feel the pain I wake up with every morning knowing I am alive, and my family aren't. This pain is my punishment for surviving and I need to feel it, live it."
Auschwitz-Birkenau is being liberated and Cilka is ready to be free. Instead she is sent to the Russian Gulag in Siberia for sleeping with the Nazis. Sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
I taught Holocaust for many years and heard survivors/their families speak about the horrors they saw and went through. Never knew that so many were imprisoned again after the camps were liberated. Something that is obviously not talked about.
Cilka Klein you will never be forgotten! She risked her life, courage, strength and even found love under brutal, devastating conditions.
This book is a MUST read!! I now need to read The Tattooist Of Auschwitz.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press/Publishing and Heather Morris for allowing me the opportunity to read this phenomenal book! One I will never forget.

Heather Morris again captures the horrors and real events of the Holocaust and Gulag survivors. From detailed research, she meticulously crafts a story of survival in the most inhuman conditions too horrendous to be fictional.
If you were fascinated by the Tattooist of Auschwitz , you will be captured and swept along in Cilka’s Journey of overcoming and allowing the survival instinct to propel Cilka to life’s riches.

I received a pre -published net galley copy for my review.

An incredible and heart wrenching book about Cilca's survival not once but twice in awful conditions whilst suffering horrendous atrocities. This book is based on facts and memorials of other Aushcwitz survivors. I enjoyed this book just as much and if not more than 'The Tattooist of Aushcwitz ' also by Heather Morris. Extremely well written and I just couldn't put it down. Both of these books will send you on a suspense filled roller coaster ride of emotions. I was also very pleased to see that there was also further detail on Cilca' s history before Aushcwitz at the end. Started this book yesterday and finished today and really hoping to hear more from this author. 5/5 and would give more of I could. Highly recommend this fab book.

I was never a big historical fiction reader, nor did I read the Tattooist of Auschwitz. However, after this book, I will be.

Heather Morris did a outstanding job with this story and her telling of Cilka'a journey to self forgiveness is beautiful and heart wrenching all at the same time.

Cilka was sent to Aushwitz when she was 16 and realized she had two choices, she could die or choice to survive by doing what she was told.

The War is over and Cilka was accused of working with the enemy and being a prostitute and even a spy. She is sentenced to 15 years hard labor at Vorkuta Gulag.

While there, she finally finds women who she connects with. Who she respects and who she is terrified of losing if they find out the truth about her and why she was sent there. I am still speechless by Cilka. While I'm sure she wasn't perfect, she was as good as they come. However, she was tearing herself up inside about her experiences at Aushwitz and believed that everyone would label her as a whore if they found out about her experiences.

This is just an amazing book and it needs to be on everyone's list for the fall!
Thank you so much to St. Martins Publishing and Heather Morris along with Bookish First and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this beautiful book.

Heartbreaking story of an awful era in human history. Amazing what the mind and spirit can endure. This is a follow up to the Tattooist of Auschwitz.
Heart wrenching yet the story must never, ever be forgotten. Cilka will never be forgotten thanks to this fabulous author.
Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.

I was lucky enough to be given this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest review. And it is amazing. It follows Cilka Klein as she goes from Auchwitz to Vorkyta Gulags in Siberia where she continues to endure hardships that one can only begin to fathom. Her resilience, bravery, and incredible will to live is demonstrated time and time again throughout this story. It’s a story that will anger you, crush you, and bring you to tears. Highly recommend so much- so well written and pays respected homage to the real Cilka Klein.

This is a stirring tribute to a valiant survivor of Auschwitz and the Soviet Gulag. Cilka was inspired by a young woman who survived her sexual abuse in Auschwitz, but was considered a collaborator and sentenced to a long term in a frightening, brutal prison in the Siberian Gulag. It is certainly a novel that will be treasured by those who enjoyed “The Tattooist of Auschwitz”.

It is not easy to read, because of the constant brutality coupled with the extraordinary skill of the author who brings each scene to life. Yet, she persisted and she survived. Cilka was able to withstand the brutality because of her determination to stay alive and her mentoring by the prison doctor. It was she who recognized Cilka ‘s extraordinary intelligence and ability and trained her to work in the hospital as a nurse.

Cilka’s courage and humanity are rewarded by her ability to stay alive and keep the people she loved safe.
I certainly recommend this to any group involved in Holocaust studies, or that of the Gulags of the Soviet Union. I know this will be a book club favorite as soon as it is released. It is beautifully written, combining Cilka’s experience in Auschwitz and in prison.

I thank Netgalley for giving me this moving experience.

Oh, my dear Cilka. Three years in Auschwitz where, as a young and pretty 16-year-old woman, you are subjected to the sexual advances of the higher-ranking Nazis. And, then, when the war is over and the camp is liberated by the Russians, you are accused of collaboration and sentenced to 15 years in Vorkuta Gulag, a labor camp in the coldest place on Earth. Siberia, 160km North of the Arctic Circle. To have endured what you had to endure at Auschwitz, and then to be punished for it! How can you go on?

For her, the answer is simple. She will live! She will not give in! She will be good in the midst of bad, the likes of which the world has never known. When offered a job out of the excruciating cold, she asks if her friend could have the job instead. She plots and schemes to find a way to get a friend and her baby out of the camp and free. She brings extra food from the hospital for the women in her "hut", even the ones who are difficult and who treat her badly. And when the day comes that Cilka, herself, can walk away from all this horror, she wonders if there isn't someone more deserving.

An endearing life in the midst of the worst possible circumstances. Read it! And then never forget.

I read this EARC courtesy of Net Galley and St. Martin's Press, pub date 10/01/19

When Cilka is transferred from a concentration camp to a Siberian work camp, she is only 16 years old and has already went through things that any person would struggle to deal with. She is assigned to a hut and builds a family from the women that she is surrounded by. She feels like she must hide her past from these women since she was kept by the enemy at her past camp and feels that they will hate her because of it. Despite all odds being against her, she is able to rise up with the help of a Dr that she becomes close to and learns to provide nursing care for many different populations and facets. She is initially trained on the ward and then moves onto obstetrics, surgery, and running the ambulance. The sheer strength of Cilka is astounding and I love that this is based on a true story.

Beautiful, heartbreaking, all of the emotions one could feel while reading a superb novel, I felt them. I am so glad the author decided to write a follow up to the Tattoist for her readers to enjoy. This book definitely lived up to her previous one. The things this young girl had to endure and experience really will make you open up your eyes to all the blessins we have in this world today. I encourage everyone to read this book!

Cilka’s Journey was devastating, heartbreaking and hopeful all at once. Just to imagine that someone that suffered so much at such a young age and was then imprisoned for surviving is just beyond awful. I’m so glad Heather Morris wrote the follow up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz so we could know what happened to Cilka. Her story, like so many others deserved to be heard and known. The story was well-written with occasional flashbacks to the concentration camp from her current time in the prison camp. I couldn’t stop reading because I needed to know how it ended.

Thank you to netgalley.com for the opportunity to read the book before publication. We first met Cilka in The Tatooist of Auschwitz. While you can certainly read this book as a stand alone, I highly recommend reading The Tatooist of Auschwitz first.

Auschwitz-Birkenau has been liberated by the Russians, but not all prisoners are free. Any prisoner convicted of consorting with the Nazis is sent to a gulag in Russia. Cilka managed to stay alive in Auschwitz and she pays dearly for it. Sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in a Russian prisoner camp her nightmare continues. Keep in mind that Cilka is Jewish And has lost her family at the hands of the Nazis.

Life, if you can call it that, in the Russian prison is hard and dangerous. Women are raped by other prisoners regularly and judged by their female counterparts who are also prisoners, often for crimes as insignificant as stealing a loaf of bread. Cilka is assigned to work in the hospital where conditions are somewhat better and certainly better than the mines.

Regardless of her own situation Cilka remains a kind and compassionate young woman who befriends and assists other prisoners both in the hospital and in the hut to which she is assigned. She lives with the guilt of surviving Auschwitz and the loss of her family in the concentration camps. She does not trust anyone in the camp to share her story with although one doctor suspects where she was transported from and what she has undergone and does everything she can to gain Cilka’s trust.

I had no idea that when the Russians liberated the concentration camps they could and would subject the Jews and other prisoners to a fresh new hell. Cilka’s Journey is beautifully written. You can feel her despair, resolve and sadness. It is brought to its end almost perfectly. Be sure to read the epilogue.

Dare I say that I enjoyed “Cilka’s Journey”? It seems almost barbaric to enjoy reading about the pain, deprivation, horrors, and tortures that were inflicted upon Cilka and her friends. Yet this book transported me to another place, another time, where no one should have ever gone. Clearly written as a captivating story, this tale of lives lost and lives of survivors made me really care about the characters and kept me thinking about them even when I had to put the book down. It does not mince words or smooth over what these brave women had to face as punishment for their perceived wrong doings, which, in reality, were nothing more than living life and surviving in difficult times. Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced read copy. I highly recommend this book, as I recommend its predecessor, “The Tattooist of Auschwitz”.

Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris is a powerful story that is inspired by the true to life experiences of Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor Cilka Klein. Readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz will remember being introduced to Cilka who was a close friend of Gita, the titular character's love interest. In an afterword by the author, Lale, the individual whose story is recounted in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, describes Cilka as the bravest person that he has ever known, and Ms Morris certainly brings this courage and unimaginable strength to life in the telling of Cilka's story.

Cilka Klein is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau when she is only sixteen, and her distinctive beauty serves to both save and condemn her. In order to ensure her survival, Cilka submits to sexual relationships with Nazi senior officers while at the women's concentration camp. After three years of enduring repeated rapes and other unfathomable injustices, she is sentenced to serve time at Vorkuta-Gulag, a Siberian prison, for the crime of consorting with the enemy. Once again, Cilka suffers deplorable conditions, but is able to find a small measure of humanity and purpose while working as a nurse-in-training.

This is a difficult read insofar as we are forced to confront the inhumanity of a period in history that is almost unfathomable in the fact that we are reading about the lives of real people rather than fictitious constructs. Ms Morris has truly brought history to life and, essentially, has given those who suffered the atrocities a face. I believe that this novel, as well as The Tattooist of Auschwitz, should be mandatory reading, not only for students, but for everyone. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

Wow!! Such an amazing, heartfelt, courageous story.. I read the tattooist of Auschwitz and first heard of Cilka in Lale and Gitas story.. I was beyond excited to read this and this story completely blew me away. I cannot imagine how anyone survived the holocaust and the aftermath and it brings to life how horrible and evil the reign of Hitler and the aftermath truly was. It breaks my heart they had to endure this.

Cilka's Journey is the beautifully written chronicle of a young woman's survival. Cilka somehow perseveres, doing what she must to stay alive first in a Nazi death camp, and then in a Russian gulag, without losing her humanity.

Well written story that brings many emotions up. I can’t comprehend a life life this. I am always encouraged and motivated by a book that shows how someone makes it to the other side of such a horrible situation. I am thankful to have read this book.
I received an advanced copy from netgalley and am thankful to the publisher, netgalley, and the author for the opportunity to read Clika Journey.