Cilka's Journey: A Novel (Tattooist of Auschwitz)

Fifteen years at hard labor. In a Siberian gulag.

That was the sentence for 18 year-old Cilka Klein, an Auschwitz survivor who did what she had to in order to survive the other place. After being liberated from the death camp by the Russians, Cilka joins thousands of others in Vorkuta Gulag, a grim and notorious prison camp near the Arctic Circle.

Cilka’s Journey basically picks up where Morris’s prior historical novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, leaves off. Readers will occasionally meet Gita and Lale from the prior novel as they wend their way through Cilka’s Journey.

Cilka’s gulag story as well as her back story are skillfully interwoven throughout this hauntingly beautiful and harrowing novel. Also included are a Note From Heather Morris, additional Information and an Afterword delving further into Stalin’s Gulag system.

Top notch writing undergirds a gripping story of determination and courage in the face of overwhelming odds, where every day is a battle not just to live but to retain one’s humanity. Reading along, you can almost feel “the relentless, bone-chilling cold the constant flow of sick and injured and dead prisoners, the rapes she again endured, the humiliation and pain of being imprisoned there, after the other place.”

Indeed, Cilka knows Vorkuta is a place where thinking about the future can be fatal and hope is impossible. It’s also a place where the greatest, bravest form of resistance is just staying alive. Like the other place, Cilka has no choices in the gulag. Everything happens to her. Like the other place, she can never hold on to anyone – mother, sister, friend. She is alone. “Completely alone in the world.”

So Cilka doesn’t believe in miracles. Or love. Or anything. But then…

Reminiscent of a Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Cilka’s Journey is a haunting, harrowing read based on the powerful story of love and survival. It’s not to be missed. L’chaim.