"A brutally honest re-telling of the Holocaust and how amidst all the suffering, love was still possible."3 Stars
Pros:Based on true life events
Cons: There way the story was told didn't convey what the characters were feeling, I felt it was too factual.
Full Review:
Lale is a young, charming, successful man with his entire life ahead of him, that is, until he volunteers to be shipped off to Auschwitz in order to keep his family safe. His sacrifice his noble enough and as he begins to learn what life is like at the most infamous Concentration Camp, he is at least glad that he could spare his family this horror, or so he hopes.
He is quickly sought out and given the assignment as the Tattoowierer, or the Tattooist, the man who tattoos the numbers onto the incoming prisoners. And though he hates it, hates inflicting pain on anyone, he dose what he must in order to survive. His days are cruel, laborious, gut wrenching and when he isn't forcing numbers into peoples skin, he is starving, freezing, suffering at the hands of the Nazis, all because he is Jewish.
His days are very much the same, until one day, he happens to lift his head and catches the eye of the girl he's tattooing and he is instantly smitten. They managed to find one another again and get to know each other. Her name is Gita, but she refuses to tell him anything else about her because she feels there is no reason, no hope, they are not making it out of Auschwitz alive. Lale believes differently and asks her to promise him that on the day they leave this place, she will at least tell him her last name.
The book moves quickly, told factually and unemotionally. Yes, there are moments when Lale or Gita suffers a terrible loss, but the author tries to leave the emotions out of the narrative. With life at Auschwitz being so unpredictable and death always looming, the narrative keeps you attentive and intrigued because you have to know what happens. At times it seems a little too convenient, things seem to work out surprisingly well for Lale, but if this is truly a fictional re-telling of true events, then I believe it could have happened.
This book was not an easy read, simply for the fact that it dealt with the single most horrific time in our human history. The subject matter aside though, it was a quick read, nothing too complex about the plot and the plight of Lale and Gita is enough to keep the pages turning.
I would recommend this book to anyone really. Though the lack of emotions from the characters is a little off putting at times, overall, it's a startling, honest and necessary tale of the horrors of the Holocaust.
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