Kylie D's Reviews > Cilka's Journey

A wonderful book about one woman's amazing tale, Cilka's Journey is a book where you struggle to come to terms with man's inhumanity to man. I mean, how much can one woman go through in one lifetime? Based on the true story of Cecilia Klein, first incarcerated in Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, when the camp is finally freed by the allies she finds herself arrested for collaboration with the Nazis, and sent to a Soviet gulag above the Arctic Circle.

Cilka was obviously an extraordinary young woman, only sixteen when first sent to Auschwitz, she did what she could to survive, and found she had to pay for it through the years that followed. We first met Cilka in the author's fantastic book The Tattooist Of Auschwitz, whereas Cilka's Journey is a fictional tale about her time spent in the gulags. Conditions in the camp come to the fore, Cilka having to cope with rape, coercion, and the bitter cold of Siberia. Yet through it all hope shines, hope that she will one day be free and be able to find love.

I found Cilka's Journey to be a compelling, yet harrowing read. A wonderful heroine, yet a hard subject, it leaves the reader feeling uneasy, the fact that this book is based on real life. However I have no hesitation in recommending it to all lovers of historical fiction.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.