I had been waiting for many weeks for this book to be free at our town library and finally, last week, it was! I read this book in just 4 days....it's excellent and based on the real story of Lale and Gita Sukolov. They met at one of the worst concentration camps: Auschwitz/Birkenau. The genre is historical fiction/biography.
STORY SUMMARY
In April of 1942, Lale Sokolov, who was a Slovakian Jew, is being forced to work at the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. He is able to speak many languages, including Russian and German, and is put to work as a tattooist. This means he is permanently marking numbers into the wrists of his fellow prisoners.
He is held captive at the concentration camps for a little over 2 years. He has no idea what has happened to his family whom he left at home (parents, a brother who is married with children, and a younger sister named Goldie).
Surrounded by thousands of prisoners and horrible conditions and atrocities, their love blooms. They both witness terrible acts of violence and murder as well as incredible acts of bravery and compassion.
Lale risks his own life and his priveleged position to exchange money and jewelry from murdered Jews to buy food to keep the fellow prisoners alive.
His own number is 32407 and one day in July of 1942, he has to tattoo the number 34902 onto the wrist of a beautiful woman. That woman's name is Gita and he vows he will survive the camps and marry her. They become good friends, and then lovers.
MY THOUGHTS
This is an excellent look into the very private thoughts and feelings of the real Lale Sokolov. He was born with a different last name (Eisenburg)but changed it to his sister's married name as it was more accepted in the Soviet-controlled Slovakia.
The author actually met and spoke with Lale over a period of about 3 years as he told his story and that of Gita so that she could write this novel which was at first a screenplay.
I loved how vibrant his character was in the book and the author does a very good job in describing that horrible time in history.
Towards the end of the book there are author notes as well as an epilogue by Lale and Gita's only child (a son) named Gary. It gave me goosebumps when I read his words. It's very moving.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to mature and sometimes disturbing content).
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.
1 comment:
This is on my list. I always have to build myself up to read a book about any of the concentration camps so have been wanting to both really read it and avoid it.
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