The subject of Auschwitz has fascinated me since school. I always looked forward to history lessons and it was something I always wanted to find out more about despite it being such a truly awful thing. I remember getting so involved in lessons about it, so this book was always going to be a must read for me. Told by Heather Morris, this is a book about Lale and Gita who meet at a concentration camp. It's love at first sight so what follows is a story of how true love can overcome anything and how humanity can be found even in the worst circumstances.
My first thought after finishing this book was how well Heather had handled such a sensitive topic. I'm almost struggling writing this review because I don't feel anything I can say can do it justice and how do you talk about such a thing that happened to so many people? To me, it was clear that much thought had gone into how best to approach this and that it was done in a way that was respectful to the people involved, but gave enough detail for us to really understand. I thought Heather's writing style was great, in that the book was very easy to follow from the very start, despite there been times where narrative changed from one person to another. It all flowed seamlessly. Her writing also really allows for you to build the story up as you go along and I found I could really clearly picture everything. Almost like a film playing out in my head.
I also thought Heather was great in building up tension in certain moments and at times I felt I was holding my breath, just waiting for something to go wrong, despite knowing that somehow it all ends up okay in the end. I was still always wondering how Lale and Gita were ever going to get themselves out of this situation, it was absolutely heart-wrenching at times. Even more so, because all I could think when reading was 'this actually happened, this was real life'. You could feel their love for one another and you just can't possibly imagine how it must have felt at the time for them both to not know how they could just survive, let alone be together. Though at times, this was a tough read, I feel like I've learnt so much. Though everyone knows the horror of the Holocaust, I still at times found myself so shocked at some of the things that happened, I just couldn't comprehend how humans could ever be so cruel to one another.
I think The Tattooist Of Auschwitz is a book everyone should read. The love story of Lale and Gita is told so sensitively, Heather has just done a brilliant job and was clearly very invested in making this the best it could be for everyone involved, it fully deserves all of the recognition it's getting. Stories like Lale's are so important and need to be told. We need to be the ones to share their stories so something like this can never be forgotten and can be never be allowed to happen again and I think books like this are the perfect way. I actually really hope it gets made into a film in the near future (I think it was originally intended to just be a movie), I think it would translate to screen beautifully and it would be a great way of getting this incredible story of love, friendship and hope out to a wider and younger audience.
My first thought after finishing this book was how well Heather had handled such a sensitive topic. I'm almost struggling writing this review because I don't feel anything I can say can do it justice and how do you talk about such a thing that happened to so many people? To me, it was clear that much thought had gone into how best to approach this and that it was done in a way that was respectful to the people involved, but gave enough detail for us to really understand. I thought Heather's writing style was great, in that the book was very easy to follow from the very start, despite there been times where narrative changed from one person to another. It all flowed seamlessly. Her writing also really allows for you to build the story up as you go along and I found I could really clearly picture everything. Almost like a film playing out in my head.
I also thought Heather was great in building up tension in certain moments and at times I felt I was holding my breath, just waiting for something to go wrong, despite knowing that somehow it all ends up okay in the end. I was still always wondering how Lale and Gita were ever going to get themselves out of this situation, it was absolutely heart-wrenching at times. Even more so, because all I could think when reading was 'this actually happened, this was real life'. You could feel their love for one another and you just can't possibly imagine how it must have felt at the time for them both to not know how they could just survive, let alone be together. Though at times, this was a tough read, I feel like I've learnt so much. Though everyone knows the horror of the Holocaust, I still at times found myself so shocked at some of the things that happened, I just couldn't comprehend how humans could ever be so cruel to one another.
I think The Tattooist Of Auschwitz is a book everyone should read. The love story of Lale and Gita is told so sensitively, Heather has just done a brilliant job and was clearly very invested in making this the best it could be for everyone involved, it fully deserves all of the recognition it's getting. Stories like Lale's are so important and need to be told. We need to be the ones to share their stories so something like this can never be forgotten and can be never be allowed to happen again and I think books like this are the perfect way. I actually really hope it gets made into a film in the near future (I think it was originally intended to just be a movie), I think it would translate to screen beautifully and it would be a great way of getting this incredible story of love, friendship and hope out to a wider and younger audience.