As part two of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka's Journey follows Cecilia Klein in the aftermath of her liberation from Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Soviet Union. Cecilia Klein or Cilka Klein survived Auschwitz by enduring constant rape and abuse at the hands of two senior officers who made her the head of Block 25, a block in which women were reassigned on their way to the gas chambers to keep her and what they were doing to her hidden away. As punishment for her 'role' in the concentration camp, Cilka is sentenced to 15 years in a Soviet work camp in the heart of Siberia and this book is a fictionalised account of her experiences there.

One of the things I loved about The Tattooist of Auschwitz was how the lives of others who endured the cruelties of Auschwitz-Birkenau were incorporated into the love story of Lale and Gita. One character whose story I wanted to know more of was Cilka's and Heather Morris writes in her author notes at the end of this book that the majority of the letters she received after publishing The Tattooist related to Cilka and what happened to her.

The idea that Cilka was punished as a co-conspirator for being raped by her captors is sickening. And hers is just one of the many stories of women punished for their abuse or left to carry the guilt of an injustice enacted against them. Although fictionalised, this is a true story of a real person who suffered many of the things written about in the novel with embellishments here and there and a dash of artistic license thrown in for good measure.

I am grateful to Heather Morris for first bringing me the story of Lale and Gita and secondly for bringing me the story of Cilka. I listened to The Tattooist on audiobook and therefore had a much different response to that than I did to this book. Morris's use of short simple sentences written in the present tense with the feel of stage directions or directorial notes worked in audiobook form as it keeps the listener actively engaged in the story. It, unfortunately, didn't quite work for me in the written form. The content of the story was almost good enough to carry itself. However, with the writing style, I ended up feeling like I was reading the author notes and chapter outlines and not the finished text.

As a plot device, I also struggled with how every single man Cilka seemed to come in contact with fell in love with her. That irked me.

This is a powerful and important story but ultimately I enjoyed reading the notes on the text at the end more than the actual novel and I wonder if it would have been better as a research historical book rather than a fictionalised novel.