Review: The Tattooist Of Auschwitz

I do love a good book. I love how an author can tell such a compelling story that I am sucked into another world for hours on end and when I am finished, I feel an odd sense of longing to be back in it. Sometimes I get so glued to the words that my mind blocks out everything that is going on around me and my imagination takes over; visualising the characters and story as I am reading it. 
Before The Tattooist of Auschwitz, I hadn't read anything based on a true story, but on one of my visits to WH Smith - where I spend ages reading the blurbs of all the best selling novels - this one really caught my eye. There is something about stories that have some truth to them that makes even more of an impact; and I definitely felt that as I was reading this. 
Without spoiling it for the people who haven't yet read it, I just want to give a quick overview of what the book is about to give my review a bit more context. 
It is the story of Lale and Gita Sokolov; set during the war. It follows all of the highs, lows, risks and heartfelt moments of their lives at Auschwitz. Lale is employed as the tattoowierer and spends hours each day tattooing the numbers onto the prisoners at Auschwitz and Birkenau. Due to this position, Lale was given better living arrangements and food rations which he tried his best from the start to distribute evenly amongst his fellow prisoners. Throughout the book we see just what it takes to survive such a place and after it is all over we find out that Lale and Gita marry and build a life and family together; despite the odds. 
This book is based on the true story of Lale and Gita and was written by Heather Morris after years of interviews with the protagonist during the much later years of his life. In the book are real photos of Lale and Gita which really adds truth and heart to the story. 

You will feel every emotion possible whilst reading this. You will smile, cry, laugh; your heart will ache and you will feel anger at what these people went through. You will hang on every word and you may even finish it in one sitting; but you will love it. 
The way that Morris tells Lale's story is compelling and definitely well worth reading. It does read a bit like fiction at parts but that is due to Morris having to fill in some blanks and also add more thoughts from characters which Lale would obviously not have known himself. I do like this style though as I feel it added to the impact it had on me. 
There are not many books that will stay with me forever, but this one definitely will. I think it is the fact that most of this actually did happen to Lale which is honestly heartbreaking to know, but I am glad that I have heard his story and that he came out and made a better life for himself in the end. 

I know some people have reviewed this book and found it to be poorly written, but I disagree. To a certain extent you can feel a bit detached from the characters, but Morris is telling an elderly man's story so to me I wasn't really expecting much in the way of great storytelling. Perhaps I am just easy to please, I don't know. 

What I do know, is that I would highly recommend that you give this book a read for yourself. After this, I know it will not be my last Holocaust novel; neither will it be my last true story, as I know they really pull on my heart strings but they really open my eyes to what many people had to endure and what really went on throughout History. 

If you have read this book, what did you think??

xx