Book description
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a 2018 Holocaust novel by New Zealand novelist Heather Morris. The book tells the story of how Slovakian Jew Lale Sokolov, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz in 1942, fell in love with a girl he was tattooing at the concentration camp. The story is based on the real lives of Sokolov and his wife, Gita Furman. There has been mixed criticism towards the book, with some complimenting the novel’s compelling story based on real-life events, while claims of factual inaccuracies that bring into question miseducation around historical events has been critiqued by the Auschwitz Memorial Research Center.
As of October 2019, the novel has sold more than three million copies around the world. In 2018, it was the #1 New York Times Bestseller and #1 International Bestseller.
Genre and Style
The Tattooist of Auschwitz fits into the genre of Holocaust fiction. Morris writes using simple, short sentences from a third-person point of view where Lale is the omniscient narrator and protagonist of the story.
The novel utilises many elements of the Romantic genre, specifically through the key plot line of Lale and Gita's love story.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz also fits into the Biographical genre. The novel is based on events in the real Lale Sokolov's life and represents the circumstances Lale and other characters in the story lived through.
Reviews
- a sincere...moving attempt to speak the unspeakable ― The Sunday Times
- What an extraordinary and important book this is. We need as many memories of the Holocaust as we can retain, and this is a moving and ultimately uplifting story of love, loyalties and friendship amidst the horrors of war. I'm so glad Lale and Gita were eventually able to live long and happy lives together, and thankful that Heather Morris was moved to record their incredible story. It's a triumph ― Jill Mansell
- Extraordinary - moving, confronting and uplifting . . . a story about the extremes of human behaviour: calculated brutality alongside impulsive and selfless acts of love. I recommend it unreservedly' ― Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project
- Based on the true story of Lale Sokolov, who is forced to tattoo numbers on his fellow concentration camp detainees' arms. ― The Bookseller
- Nothing that I could possibly write here would be eloquent enough to convey to you how powerful and moving this book was. I could go on for pages telling you how well this is written, nothing is overdramatized...she just tell this tale that is at its bare bones a love story. I cried entire buckets of tears. Finally I will use the words of Lale "If you wake up in the morning, it is a good day" that it is. That it is ― Netgalley Reviewer
- What I loved so much about this book is that it actually made me stop and think; each and every one of those people, regardless of their number or rank within the system or whether they survived or didn't, had their own story. A quite unexpected story in fact of love, despite the odds, within the concentration camps. What's so beautiful about this book is not actually that it's true. Because it is both too beautiful and too ugly to really "enjoy" reading such an honest first hand account. What struck me the most was how quickly relationships, and very strong friendships almost akin to family, develop when times are so terrible. A hard-hitting, important book with love at it's core. A brave story shared with an author who delivers it perfectly for one man, and his love affair, who would not be defeated ― Netgalley Reviewer
- I don't like reading war time books because they get too depressing or too political. But this one was so different, it gave you hope, that even in the darkest of times if your willpower and faith is strong you can come out successful ― Book Ninja