Once again my good friend Helen has read and reviewed a book that I don’t think I will get around to reading this year due to blog tour commitments but I am pretty sure you will love if you like Historical Fiction. If you want to see Helen’s other reviews click here.
About the book: ‘Little dancer’, Mengele says, ‘dance for me’
It’s 1944 and sixteen-year-old ballerina and gymnast Edith Eger is sent to Auschwitz. Separated from her parents on arrival, she endures unimaginable experiences, including being made to dance for the infamous Josef Mengele. When the camp is finally liberated, she is pulled from a pile of bodies, barely alive.
The horrors of the Holocaust didn’t break Edith. In fact, they helped her learn to live again with a life-affirming strength and a truly remarkable resilience. The Choice is her unforgettable story.
‘One of those rare and eternal stories you don’t want to end and that leave you forever changed’ – Desmond Tutu
‘A masterpiece of holocaust literature. Her memoir, like her life, is extraordinary, harrowing and inspiring in equal measure’ – The Times Literary Supplement
‘I can’t imagine a more important message for modern times. Eger’s book is a triumph’ – The New York Times
About the Author: A native of Hungary, Edith Eger was a teenager in 1944 when she and her family were sent to Auschwitz during the Second World War. Despite overwhelming odds, Edith survived the Holocaust and moved with her husband to the United States. Having worked in a factory whilst raising her young family, she went on to graduate with a PhD from the University of Texas and became an eminent psychologist. Today, she maintains a busy clinical practice and lectures around the world.
Helen’s Review: A truly humbling, at times heartbreaking but uplifting book
This amazing woman, who is a survivor of Auschwitz and the most heinous crimes against humanity, has written about her childhood, her internment, and her life in Hungary and the US after the war, her struggles as an immigrant with little English, her own marital problems and her growth into a highly respected clinical psychologist who, drawing from her own experiences helped others to free themselves from the prisons created within themselves by life’s traumas, including work for the military, helping PTSD patients before the condition was widely recognised.
This book contains a compelling message that we can overcome our demons, move on from hurt and anger and heartbreak and heal ourselves by looking at things in a different way .
Emotional, thought provoking and truly inspirational
Helen’s star rating:
