A powerful and beautifully written novel that explores important themes while delivering a gripping narrative. It’s a book that will stay with you long after you finish it

I'm not sure it's correct to say I "loved" this...because how can you love a book so full of pain and atrocities. However, Edith writes incredibly eloquently and beautifully of her experiences and you cannot help but be moved by her life story.

The Ballerina of Auschwitz is a book I would not consider reading; however, I felt inexplicably drawn to it. I found it to be an exceptionally powerful story, and I am grateful that I chose it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

A moving read about Jewish life leading up to being captured and put into a concentration camp. The privations endured, and indignities they all had to go through and those who came out at the end. A very moving story on how life can go on in the most difficult circumstances imaginable. This story is one everyone needs to read, to ensure it won’t happen again.

A harrowing read, as is any book on this topic. An important book to read, but the people in charge of all countries need to be reading this - humanity has learned nothing from history.

It is a beautifully written, heartbreaking book. Unfortunately, I can’t stop thinking that we don’t learn from history…

I’ve not read ‘The Choice’ so for me, Edith’s story was a new one. Whilst I’ve certainly read many books and watched documentaries about The Holocaust, Edith’s story was a bit different for me. This is Edith’s account of her horrifying time during the war and ultimately her time in Auschwitz, told as her teenage self. The language was simple, the descriptions clear, and the emotion absolutely shone through that it was very touching. Her strength is hard to comprehend, along with her fellow prisoners. No matter how many times I read stories centred around this time of history, I still can’t fathom it. This is a special one for a history lover.

The Ballerina of Auschwitz is a story of the author's survival of the Holocaust, as seen through the eyes of her teenage self. Its a poignant and at times distressing read but not untypical of this genre. Whilst as a story in its own rite it was a compelling read, I felt it would have benefitted from more 'what came next' but I appreciate this book was about wartime experiences, not the aftermath.
With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A really moving and inspiring story of how a young girl, talented as a dancer, survived in Auschwitz, even after some encounters with the notorious Dr Mengele. Her zest for life and love for her family carried her through unspeakable experiences and enabled her to rebuild her life.

This was a read like no other, truly moving, emotive & heartbreaking yet it was also full of hope and uplifting.
A beautifully gripping and insightful read.

Thanks to NetGalley, publishers and author for an ARC of The Ballerina of Auschwitz.

This is a true life story, and reading about the atrocious never gets easier. It's a hard hitting read, but isn't as detailed as some other holocaust stories. While it's hard to say this book is enjoyable due to the topic, it is a nice read.
Highly recommend

A poignant and important story about survival, love and loss. In this book we follow a young Jewish girl in Hungary who finds her life completely uprooted when the war catches up with them and they are transported to Auschwitz. Unsure if her innocent comment cost a family member their life she has to find a way to survive and keep hope. The book touches on themes I have seen in many other books similar to this (A Man’s Search for Meaning, The Twins of Auschwitz etc) where having a goal, a hope that can’t be extinguished and someone to live for becomes paramount for survival.

The way Edith and her surviving family recover and reconcile what has happened to them and what they have lost show how different people with similar (if not almost the same) circumstances react to the same event differently.

The book is an easy although heavy read and absolutely important and vital for the continued fight against fascism and anti semitism. There are many moments where Edith should have died but was given a second, third and fourth chance at life. Survival can be so random. Hearing about how rough her health was and how slow recovery was made a deep impression and is an aspect I feel is so often forgotten when you are taught about history. The war might have ended but the suffering and the mentality of nazis didn’t.

In 1944, at just 16 years old, young dancer Edith Eger was sent to Auschwitz. In her raw and deeply personal memoir, Eger recounts the unimaginable horrors she witnessed and the resilience that ultimately saved her life – surviving and being rescued barely alive when the camp was finally liberated.

Now an esteemed psychologist, Dr Edith Eger is one of the few remaining Holocaust survivors with vivid memories of life in the camps. She is the author of bestselling, award-winning books such as The Choice and The Gift, and she dedicates her life to helping victims of trauma, including veterans and military personnel.

When I first requested this title from NetGalley, I mistakenly believed it was a work of fiction, and I hesitated upon discovering it was non-fiction. However, I am incredibly grateful that I chose to read it. Eger’s memoir is a story of loss and heartache, and is not just a testament to her survival but a poignant exploration of hope and resilience in the face of unimaginable adversity.

Her story is a harrowing read, but a powerful reminder of the strength of the human spirit.

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Heartbreaking yet hopeful, beautifully written book.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read an early copy of this memoir.

A heartbreaking, and deeply affecting book, but I found it also uplifting. The author's testimony is deeply disturbing, but her writing is so clear and direct that the book is impossible to put down; I am very glad that I was able to read it.

This book is like no other that I have read. If I'd been asked beforehand if it's possible for a Auschwitz novel to be uplifting I have been certain it couldn't, and yet The Ballerina of Auschwitz manages it. To be clear, it is also heart breaking, but there is a definite feel of hope at the same time.

This book is both heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. The hope and strength that Edith has throughout kept me gripped to reading it. Thankyou for sharing your story Edith.

A harrowing read which ultimately leaves you with a sense of hope and resilience.

Edith - a Jew, a gymnast and ballet dancer - who with her sister Magda survives a year in Auschwitz. Told graphically you are given a personal account of her survival against the odds and her return home. Her choice is then to live despite what happened to her or allow herself to be completely subsumed by her experiences.

Despite the horrors she saw Edith faced the future with hope - a lesson to us all.

This is a heart rending story of two sisters who survived the prison camps during the Second World War. It is so vivid I lived every moment with the author, having access to her thoughts as well as the physical aspects of what they had to go through.
It’s hard to imagine what it was like but this was told so expressively it did manage to convey, as well as anyone could, the hardships and difficulties.

I had never come across Edith Eger before receiving this ARC from NetGalley. I am so grateful to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this moving book. I understand that this is a young adult version of Eger's longer memoir, 'The Choice'. I have to admit that having read The Ballerina of Auschwitz I'm now keen to read the longer book. This book seemed to me to be pitched perfectly at a young adult market. It can at times be a harrowing read (particularly towards the end when the impact of being imprisoned in Auschwitz really starts to tell its toll on the young Eger's mind and body) but it is a story that undoubtedly needs to be told, and which is written in a way that would, I think, resonate with young adults - Eger's story focuses primarily upon her life between the ages of 16-18, her first love and her hopes and dreams for the future. It provides insights into very dark days and how to move on past traumatic events. I will be recommending to the young people I know.