Cilka's Journey: A Novel

Written by Heather Morris

Narrated by Louise Brealey

"Louise Brealey is an excellent reader who gives Cilka a thoughtful, sympathetic voice." -- Jersey's Best

This program includes a bonus conversation with the author.

From the author of the multi-million copy bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz comes a new novel based on an incredible true story of love and resilience.

Her beauty saved her — and condemned her.

Cilka is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1942, where the commandant immediately notices how beautiful she is. Forcibly separated from the other women prisoners, Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly taken, equals survival.

When the war is over and the camp is liberated, freedom is not granted to Cilka: She is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp. But did she really have a choice? And where do the lines of morality lie for Cilka, who was send to Auschwitz when she was still a child?

In Siberia, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar, including the unwanted attention of the guards. But when she meets a kind female doctor, Cilka is taken under her wing and begins to tend to the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under brutal conditions.

Confronting death and terror daily, Cilka discovers a strength she never knew she had. And when she begins to tentatively form bonds and relationships in this harsh, new reality, Cilka finds that despite everything that has happened to her, there is room in her heart for love.

From child to woman, from woman to healer, Cilka's journey illuminates the resilience of the human spirit—and the will we have to survive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Oct 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781250265999

Heather Morris

HEATHER MORRIS is a native of New Zealand, now resident in Australia. For several years, while working in a large public hospital in Melbourne, she studied and wrote screenplays, one of which was optioned by an Academy Award-winning screenwriter in the US. In 2003, Heather was introduced to an elderly gentleman who ‘might just have a story worth telling’. The day she met Lale Sokolov changed both their lives. Their friendship grew and Lale embarked on a journey of self-scrutiny, entrusting the innermost details of his life during the Holocaust to her. Heather originally wrote Lale’s story as a screenplay – which ranked high in international competitions – before reshaping it into her debut novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Reviews for Cilka's Journey

[Becki Basley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Cilka’s journey (Tattooist of Auschwitz book 2) by Heather Morris

(scribd audiobook loan)
This book continues the story started In the book one about a remarkable woman who actually existed. Cilka

When she was sixteen she entered Auschwitz and was the sex slave of two high ranking officials. She was also made to be in charge of the barracks the people were forced to stay in while they awaited the gas chamber because there were no witnesses to what the men were doing with her there.

Book 2 tells the rest of her story and begins when the Russians convict her of conspiring with the Nazis and sentence her to 15 years in a Soviet golag near the North Pole. What follows is how she survives that time becoming a “camp wife” (basically another sex slave ) and also by learning nursing while working in the. Hospital. Just thinking of the incredible mental toll on a person to go through one of these prisons is mind boggling. Yet Cilka does it and her story is worth witnessing through reading this book. She was a truly remarkable person
I truly loved this book and would highly recommend it.

[karen Kulin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Unbelievably good. I was riveted by Cilka’s Journey. This should be required reading in high schools along with The Tattooist of Auschwitz in the hope atrocities such as this are never again allowed to happen.

[Judy Davis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Compelling read. Definitely one of the best books that I have read in the last year.

[Musical3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There isn’t much written about the Russian gulags and though this book is more of a historical fiction, it is insightful. It’s is about a person who really existed, Cilka Klein. It is heartbreaking and stomach wrenching. Must read tattooist of auchwitz first. Also listen to Harris’s Morrison’s interview in the last chapter and how she came to write this book.

[Katelyn Toan Nguyen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An amazing book! I enjoyed every part of the story.

[Angela Stewart · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An amazing story about an amazing woman. An eye opening account about Gulags.

[Kelly Kalinowski · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved hearing Cilkas story. It added a great deal of understanding.

[meghan_howell_10 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

At the end of the book the author is interviewed she says something about how readers wanted to know more about chilka's life. When I finish the tattooist book I thought exactly the same thing. Is amazing courage that a very young girl turned woman can have to survive and how selfless one is able to be. This a book is moving and will rip your heart out at the same time. Is a fictional book interwoven with facts, but so real. I'm glad the author wrote this one.

[Karen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book: a true story that is beautiful, tragic, horrifying.

[Patti Piorkowski · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a awesome book. I would recommend it to anyone that likes stories about WW1 and WW11

[Sarah Rich · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Riveting. Heartbreaking. Compelling. Difficult story about a beautiful person who, despite all odds, never lost her grit. Absolutely worth the listen!

[Sheila Anderson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I learned so much, well written. Amazing read!! I will tell my friends & family.

[Trina Brown · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing read! One of my best reads of the year!

[charlotte · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Its a wonderful strong brave story of a woman surviving the worst times in history.

[Bella Elliott · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It took me a long time to mentally prepare myself to hear Cilka’s story. All that she endured in her young life. The family, friends and parts of herself she lost. This was a beautiful book. Beautiful.

[Rozann Lamberto · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the best books I have ever read. It touched the depths of my heart and spirit!

[jwbatson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I listened to this exceptionally fine reading immediately after I finished Tattooist of Auschwitz. I couldn’t imagine how Heather Morris could ever follow up the first book, but still did it. Morris’s text is both clean with little embellishments while also being lyrical and readable. I listened to these two books over difficult Christmas holidays thinking how I usually read Dickens. I discovered that it was the hope I found uplifting even at a time that was supposed to be jolly. The hope fed my soul.