Member Reviews
When they are little girls, Cibi, Magda and Livia make a promise to their father - that they will stay together, no matter what. Years later, at just 15, Livia is ordered to Auschwitz by the Nazis. Cibi, only 19 herself, remembers their promise and follows Livia, determined to protect her sister, or die with her. Together, they fight to survive through unimaginable cruelty and hardship. Magda, only 17, stays with her mother and grandfather, hiding out in a neighbour's attic or in the forest when the Nazi militia come to round up friends, neighbours and family. She escapes for a time, but eventually she too is captured and transported to the death camp. In Auschwitz-Birkenau the three sisters are reunited and, remembering their father, they make a new promise, this time to each other: That they will survive.
Wow, this is such an incredible read. This is probably my favourite from Morris and I cannot recommend it enough. 'Three Sisters' is incredibly moving and powerful. Morris evokes the atmosphere, danger, fear and characters perfectly. I found the whole read very moving and a harrowing read at that. This is in no way enjoyable and yet it is as we get the special treat of getting to know these remarkable women and the people they meet on their life journey. History tells us the facts but Morris really brings it to life with this read.
Without giving spoilers, Morris has split this into three parts. The first part is by far my favourite, it makes for engrossing reading and I could not put it down. The latter half of the book is not as powerful in my opinion but it serves a different purpose, you will discover yourself what happens if you read this so I will not detail it. I still enjoyed it , I just thought the first half of the book was stronger.
The plot makes for haunting reading and it is even more emotional due to the wonderful characters, or should I say people, that Morris has written about. Ciba, Magda and Livia have an indescribable story to tell. They live through so much and Morris gives them a voice and retells everything they endured; good and bad. The three sisters are such strong women and I loved getting to know them, reading about their life and seeing what happened to them and those around them. They are such a strong, central group and ensured I felt all the emotion Morris was writing about.
'Three Sisters' is an absolute must read. It is powerful, moving and thought-provoking.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Books UK for an advance
BOOK REVIEW:
Three Sisters by Heather Morris @heathermorrisauthor
4.5 Stars
Three Sisters by Heather Morris is a work of fiction but it is heavily based on the lives and stories of three real sisters and their time before, during and after World War II. Once again Morris has captured a very dark time in history and written a truly engaging and gripping story.
This book is based around three sisters from Slovakia named Cibi, Magda and Livi. It is their three personalities and viewpoints that truly makes this book what it is. I felt that I got to know all three of the sisters and felt so connected to them I could not put the book down and I read it in a day. Their story is as horrifying and upsetting as you would expect with it mainly based in Auschwitz, however it is also filled with incredible strength, courage, hope and most of all, love. This story is a remarkable one and definitely gave me even more insights into life at Auschwitz.
Heather Morris is a wonderful writer but also has an incredible way of taking real life events and fitting them together into a story that does the people and the subject justice.
I would highly recommend reading the author's note and the afterwords which gave some extra facts to this story and how it came about.
Three Sisters is a standalone and you do not need to read The Tattooist of Auschwitz or Cilka's Journey before it, but I highly recommend you do as they are all stories that deserve to be read.
I cannot recommend this book more and hope you all grab a copy to read Cibi, Magda and Livi's story.
Please note that I was #gifted this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
Really enjoyed this book, three sister who faced the most horrific times, in Auschwitz but the promise they made to their father to always look after each other. kept them going and helped them to survive in a place without hope..
From the author of in The Tattooist Of Auschwitz series comes another harrowing read of three sisters journies during & after their time in a concentration camp. .
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Hard to read, but un-put-dow able!
Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
This didn’t do it for me. Maybe I’ve read too many similar things or maybe I’m just getting cynical at sheer volume of books focused on this part of history. Didn’t finish it.
I really liked the previous two books in this series, but I feel as though that's probably enough. As interesting as this story was, it doesn't carry as strong an impact as the first one that was based on a very real person.
This is also minor, but the characters kept calling their mother "Mumma", which is a very Australian term. If felt like it kept pulling me out of the immersion.
Thank you to the publisher via Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
3 sisters made a promise to their father they would all stay together always because they are stronger together. But how can they keep their promise during WW2 when they are separated and two of the sisters have been sent to a concentration camp.
I enjoyed this book so much. Seeing the concentration camps through the eyes of young girls the uncertainty of what would happen tomorrow and their struggle to overcome everything that happened to them and look to the future was heartbreaking. This book brought me to tears so many times.
Despite the the horror discussed in this book it was a quick read and something I just couldn’t put down. If you enjoyed Heather Morris’s previous books this is one you won’t want to miss. 5 stars.
'A promise to stay together. An unbreakable bond. A fierce will to survive. When they are girls, Cibi, Magda and Livia make a promise to their father - that they will stay together, no matter what.'
Prior to reading this book, I had read Heather Morris' The Tattooist of Auschwitz and found it incredibly moving. Three Sisters unveils a different, yet equally brutal side to the concentration camps, through the eyes of three fiercely loyal and brave sisters.
Morris does such a wonderful job with such harrowing subject matter. Instead of highlighting or lingering on the horrors that occurred, she focuses on the sisters and their mother and grandfather. Their bond, courage and will to survive is astounding to read about and this is made all the more poignant by the strength of Morris' craft. To weave facts and verbatim stories into a narrative that brings the reader to the centre of the action is an incredible skill. You really feel as though you are a sister to the girls themselves.
The authors care for the real sisters' stories is evident throughout; her respect for them filters through the pages. It is no easy task to take someone's life story, particularly one so tragic, and craft it into a book like this. It takes a special person to do it.
I also really appreciated that the book didn't end immediately after the end of the war. Reading about life after their ordeal and the joys that came thereafter had me wiping more than a few tears away.
Thank you to Bonnier Zaffre for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for a review.
This book takes you on a emotional journey and I couldn’t stop reading. I had to stay up to finish it.
It follows the same subject matter as previous novels by Heather Morris and is just as well written.
It is always difficult to believe the events actually happened due to their harrowing nature but Heather seems to be able to convey the details so well while still giving the respect the story commands.
Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this arc in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
A fantastic read as expected from heather Morris
Moving yet with a hopeful ending. Looking forward to the next installment
The ‘Three Sisters’ is the final instalment in the Tattooist of Auschwitz Trilogy (Tattooist of Auschwitz – 2018, Cilka’s Journey – 2019) all of which are based on the heart wrenching true stories of holocaust survivors, written by Heather Morris.
As children, Cibi, Magda and Livia make a promise to their Father to always stay together and to protect one another. This promise leads Cibi to joining her sister Livia, who at only 15 years old, is instructed to leave the family home to “work for the Nazis” whilst Magda is hidden in hospital recovering from a fever. Distraught and guilt-ridden to be breaking her promise and separated from her sisters, Magda is desperate to follow however is begged by her Mother and Grandfather to remain safe at home hiding from the weekly visits of the Nazi militia either in the forest, or a neighbours attic space. The trio are sadly reunited some time later at Auschwitz-Birkenau where their passionate love for each other, strength, determination and courage aid them in their survival.
It feels wrong to say I have enjoyed reading the Three Sisters (or the previous two books) however their story is one that needed to be told. I was astounded by the resilience and strength that all three sisters demonstrated however Cibi’s courage and determination to protect her younger sister, is what caught me the most. Unlike other WW2/Holocaust novels, I was pleased to find that we were going to be told “what happened next” and how the girls journeys continued after they escaped the death march. This was actually my favourite part of the book and although they remained haunted by their experiences and memories, I was overwhelmed to learn about their lives together with partners and children in a new world.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for this ARC.
I haven’t read any of the authors other books and was pleased to be approved for this. I found this to be a heart wrenching, emotional, sad and poignant read. It begins with three young Slovakian sisters making a promise to their father that they will always take care of each other. The story takes place mostly during WW2 in a concentration camp where two of the sisters are. This book was at times a difficult read mainly because of the subject matter and the fact you know these atrocities took place. I liked and admired the three main characters and I had so much empathy for them and what they went through. This read was heartbreaking at times especially when their life in the camps and the death march they took part in was described. I think the author has captured her characters feelings, thoughts and emotions very eloquently and as a reader you can’t help but be affected by their story which had me in tears a few times. I loved the part after the war ended and enjoyed following the sisters as they had hope for the future and tried to rebuild their lives. Overall, a very powerful and poignant read that will stay on my mind for a while.
This true story reimagined by Heather Morris on behalf of the three sisters Cibi, Magda and Livia is inspiring, life affirming, raw and heartbreaking. As with all Auschwitz stories it's never an easy read. I liked that the story went beyond Auschwitz and took us to post war Israel.
I could associate easily with the sisters bond, but trying to imagine myself and my sister going through what these sisters suffered made me so emotional.
As with her previous books Heather Morris has offered up an engaging, emotional story that is a stand alone book although characters from her previous books also feature.
I'm so glad Cibi, Magda and Livia have had the chance to tell their story, no matter how hard this suffering was it's important these individual tales aren't lost to history.
Thanks to @netgalley
#netgalley @bonnierbooks_uk
And @heathermorrisauthor for an ARC of this novel. Pub date 14th October 2021
I always find it difficult to rate and review a book about something that happened in real life, with real-life characters on it. It also feels kind of wrong to say that I enjoyed it when I have been reading about surviving such a horrible experience.
It is well written and I did feel like I was reading some kind of high school diaries at times. I guess is understandable since the sisters were teenagers then. I didn't find their life story that interesting.
However, there are lots of books about the Holocaust and it is difficult to find one that tells more than the story in the camps. That is what I enjoyed about this one. It was good to read about the sister's lives after the camp, how they managed to move on and create their own life after everything they went through.
It’s always difficult to say you enjoyed a book about the Holocaust because by its very nature it’s always going to be a heartbreaking read but needless to say this was a very good story. It is based on some real people as are the previous books in this series and that makes for a difficult yet uplifting read even though at times it is hard to come to terms with all the suffering these people endured and still do.
So a book that was extremely well written and interesting with some very good characters two of whom Heather Morris has met made this a read that I did enjoy although somehow I felt something was missing I’m not sure quite what it was I think perhaps I just didn’t connect with the sisters but still overall it was a good read and I particularly loved the authors notes and afterwords at the end of the book that really made this book for me.
My thanks to NetGalley and Bonnier Books UK, Zaffre for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
Heather Morris is so good at getting deep into the soul - that of the character, and that of the reader.
Cibi, Magda and Livi are the three sisters of the title; this is the story of their lives and the trauma they faced in Auschwitz-Birkenau as Slovakian Jews. Of course this is a heart wrenching narrative, but also very life-affirming and loving - the three sisters are integral parts of one another and family is everything to them.
I loved discovering their story, and grateful they have shared it with Heather Morris so it can be recorded in history in this wonderful read.
The Three sisters by Heather Morris is the third book in the Tattooist of Auschwitz series. I adored the first two books in this series, so I was looking forward to reading this.
Cibi, Magda and Livi promise their dying father that they will stay together no matter what. So, when WW2 starts in Slovakia 15-year-old Livi is called to work for the Germans. Unaware the real reason that they have selected her. So, she doesn’t go alone and to keep her promise 19-year-old Cibi decides to go with her. While at the same time their sister Magda is in hospital. This decision takes the girls to Auschwitz and then the war ends they travel and settle in Israel. The story tells of the harrowing journey and the horrors that they endured and eventually all three girls managed to be reunited. All three girls have different stories to tell.
Thank you Bonnier for a copy of The Three sisters by Heather Morris. I did enjoy this third instalment in the series, and it had a good storyline but, I didn’t think it was as good as the first two books in the series. I felt that some of the content was going over old ground and that the second half was a bit rushed that it was hard to resonate with. But this story is still worth the read just to complete the story of the previous two books 3.5 stars from me.
The author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz returns with the story of three Jewish sisters, whose promise to always remain together is tested in the cruellest of ways when two of them are transported to Auschwitz as teenagers, while the third escaped but had to remain in hiding, ever fearful of discovery.
I wanted to like this book because I believe it is important that the people who survived the concentration camps are given the opportunity to tell their stories, however harrowing they are, and Cibi, Magda and Livi's story is truly terrible - the fact they survived to tell the tale is remarkable. But it is written so unengagingly, particularly the latter half of the book - it is just "this happened, then this happened, then this happened." It's possible to ignore this in the first half of the book, where events are so shocking that it doesn't matter how they are presented, they can't fail to move the reader, but when it comes to the second half of the book where the girls are rebuilding their lives after the concentration camps, it became dull to read. The story of the three sisters deserved to be told, I just wish it had been done with the depth and emotion that it justified.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
I've read Heather's other books and really enjoyed them so I was looking forward to reading her next book. Although these books are incredibly sad they are also full of hope. As the title suggests this is about three sisters and Auschwitz. These books are totally standalone books
I enjoyed this book. Its always an eye opener to hear what goes off in these places and the shock factor is still there in this book. I liked how it went to past characters in previous books, they may or may not have ever have met but it was nice to see a familiar face. Its another incredible read and if you like reading about Auschwitz you will enjoy this.
I’ve read the other books by Heather Morris and was very excited to read this one. I wasn’t disappointed. The Holocaust is one of the most horrific events in the history of the world. These books help us see the people and not just names. Thank you