The third in the series from the author of the Tattooist of Auschwitz. As the name suggests it focuses on three sisters called Magda, Livi and Cibi. They made a promise to their father that they will always stay together and look after each other. When Livi, the youngest girl is called up to go to Auschwitz, Cibi (the eldest) volunteers to go with her so she isn't alone. Meanwhile Magda is left in Slovakia as she is in hospital. This novel is testament to the power that love and devotion can literally get you through everything. There is passing mention of Gita from the Tattooist of Auschwitz and also Cilka from Cilka's journey which is a lovely little nod to Morris' previous novels. Just like Heather Morris' other literary works this is also well written and you get sucked in and before you know it you have read 50 pages in an afternoon! It is interesting that this book doesn't just end with the sisters release from Auschwitz like most other WWII memoirs but carries on with the rest of the sisters lives and explains how they slowly heal and get on with the rest of their lives.

If you enjoyed the first two books (`The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka's Journey), then I think you'll equally enjoy this book. The three sisters fill the pages with bravery, family love and the ability to endure. Even when life is unimaginably hard, one of them is always able to boost up the other two to keep on keeping on.

I love when we see characters from the previous books, and how even fleeing meetings can make a difference in someone else's life.

The concentration camp setting is as harrowing as you would imagine, but I also really appreciated the story the followed after their freedom. For these three young women life was just beginning and shaking off their nightmare pasts was never going to be easy. I appreciated how their PTSD was portrayed and how again their love for each other carried them through.

At the end of the book, I had a lump in my throat as you see the large legacy that the three sisters grew, They endured, survived and thrived which makes for a rewarding and inspiring read.

This is the third book in this series I have read by Heather Morris following the excellent ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’. While I find most books about Auschwitz fascinating reads the two subsequent books written by Heather Morris have failed to grip me in the way her first book did.

The story follows three sisters as the title suggests, Cibi, Magda and Livia and their promise to their father that they will stay together, no matter what. When Livia is 15 she is ordered to Auschwitz by the Nazis and is followed by elder sister Cibi, 19 who wants to try and protect her sister. Together in Auschwitz they will need to stay strong to survive through cruelty and hardship.

The remaining sister Magda hides out in a neighbours attic with her mother and grandfather but it is only a matter of time before she is also captured and transported to the death camp where her two sisters are. With the three sisters now re united they have kept their promise but there are still further battles to face.

A book written about terrible heart-breaking times but the book lacks something different from the many other stories on this subject to make it a special read.

I would like to thank both Net Galley and Bonnier Books for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

An incredible book from start to finish, so emotional and so powerful, every chapter left me desperate to read on. I felt so invested in the lives of the three sisters, and as a reader you become so connected to them, I think especially as this book spans more than just their lives in Auschwitz, looking at both before and after meaning they become the three-dimensional people they deserve to be. This was just as excellent as Heather Morris' previous books!

Thanks NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. A dark and bleak background but a story well told. This author is good a developing characters we care about against a background of darkness. Not a light summer read but definitely worth reading.

In this book Heather Morris tells the story of Three Sisters from Slovakia. Cibi and Livi are amongst the first Jewish girls to be taken to Auschwitz. Magda is saved by a doctor who admits her to hospital to avoid the round up. It is a long, harrowing 2 years before the girls are reunited.

The horrors of the camp at Auschwitz are well documented and the author does a good job of sharing the girls’ experience without over dramatising and sensationalising. It’s a challenging read and I did find it a little choppy, particularly in the later sections. However, it’s a fascinating read of 3 inspirational snd strong women. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

I loved this… slightly more than than the other two! Heather always writes so well and brings peoples true life stories across to the readers with such passion and understanding! This story had me on the edge of my seat, many times as I always wanted the best outcome for the sisters! Their stories kept me so interested and i felt at times that I was sharing the horrors they saw and lived with! A definite recommendation

I absolutely adored Heather’s two previous novels - The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’s Journey - so I was more than excited to see she’d written another book. I love the nods to her previous novels in this one, like meeting the tattooist. They don’t ruin the book for someone who hasn’t read the others, but they’re a callback to those who have.

No matter how many books, fictional or non-fictional, I read about the Holocaust, they will always be hard to read. You know this is a fiction book, but knowing it’s based on real horrors, even now it’s hard to believe it ever happened.

Heather never downplays the violence and horrors, but equally she doesn’t use it for just entertainment purposes. It is sadly just what it is. No one could possibly invent the horrors fictionalised in this book.

I love that these stories are real and Heather has been chosen as the guardian of them. Is there a risk of her books becoming repetitive? Possibly. But that’s not a reason to stop writing them. These stories need to be remembered forever to prevent them ever happening again.

Heather manages to portray the joy amongst the pain, fear and desperation. What they went through was terrible, but she’s managed to ensure we don’t forget the beauty the sisters experienced too.

Near the end of the book, Heather mentions a sculpture called “The Miracle of Three Sisters” in a Toronto exhibition titled “WAR Light Within/After the Darkness”, so I had to look it up. I found the online brochure with the sculpture in. It’s a very simple glass sculpture but it brought tears to my eyes. It’s so simple but so moving. I think it is something that should be shown to everyone learning about WW2 and the Holocaust.

I also love that in the acknowledgements at the end, Heather provides an update on all the people mentioned in the book. So we can remember all those who help keep these sisters together.

1929 - The story begins with the three young sisters sitting with their father at home in Slovakia. He makes them promise they will always be there for each other.

1942 - The Police give instructions that girls over 16 will have to go and work for the Germans. The family had no idea of the horrors that awaited.

I usually read contemporary fiction, nothing based on true life stories or historical memoir, but I've read and been deeply moved by Heather Morris's earlier books The Tattoist of Auschwitz and Cilka's Journey.

In this book I found the story of the three sisters deeply distressing, while their spirit to survive equally life-affirming. It being the story of three sisters brings in a new dimension, a supportive sisterly element in the struggle for survival and the atrocities they have to witness.

It really feels like a full lifetime narrative, from early childhood, through the darkest days in the camps, and for those that survive the chance to build new lives and families after the war.

I was deeply moved and an emotional wreck for great chunks of this book. If you have read and been moved by Heather Morris's previous books, this is a must read. If you've never read anything in this genre, this is a must read.

A dark and bleak but ultimately life-affirming journey, with hope in the darkest days, a determination to survive and to care for those that you love.

A vitally important book to never forget, and a reminder of the depth of human hope, love and the will to survive.


Thanks to Netgalley and Zaffre / Bonnier Books