The Child of Auschwitz

Book Review

The Child of Auschwitz by Lily Graham

About The Child of Auschwitz:

(From the publisher) It is 1942 and Eva Adami has boarded a train to Auschwitz. Barely able to breathe due to the press of bodies and exhausted from standing up for two days, she can think only of her longed-for reunion with her husband Michal, who was sent there six months earlier.

But when Eva arrives at Auschwitz, there is no sign of Michal and the stark reality of the camp comes crashing down upon her. As she lies heartbroken and shivering on a thin mattress, her head shaved by rough hands, she hears a whisper. Her bunkmate, Sofie, is reaching out her hand…

As the days pass, the two women learn each other’s hopes and dreams – Eva’s is that she will find Michal alive in this terrible place, and Sofie’s is that she will be reunited with her son Tomas, over the border in an orphanage in Austria. Sofie sees the chance to engineer one last meeting between Eva and Michal and knows she must take it even if means befriending the enemy…

But when Eva realises she is pregnant she fears she has endangered both their lives. The women promise to protect each other’s children, should the worst occur. For they are determined to hold on to the last flower of hope in the shadows and degradation: their precious children, who they pray will live to tell their story when they no longer can.

A heart-breaking story of survival, where life or death relies on the smallest chance and happiness can be found in the darkest times. Fans of The Choice and The Tattooist of Auschwitz will fall in love with this beautiful novel.

This post contains affiliate links; as an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This copy was received courtesy of the publisher, Grand Central Publisher. As always, all opinions are entirely my own!

Reader’s Thoughts

The Child of Auschwitz is a little book (just 230 pages) but it carries such weight. This Holocaust story is set almost entirely within Auschwitz and focuses on the incredible, fictional friendship of two women in particular — Sophie and Eva. It’s a character-based novel that is absolutely heartbreaking but also packed full of resilience and hope.

This book left me feeling all of the emotions: horrified, angry, sad, joy, heartbreak. It’s not an easy read, and it shouldn’t be. Graham did not gloss over the harsh and horrific realities of the camps, which is important with a setting like this. The story felt carefully curated to reflect as accurate an account as possible, and I appreciated the amount of research that seemed to go into it. We can’t ever let ourselves forget what happened.

There was one element to the ending that I wasn’t fully convinced of, but it still very much fit the overarching theme of hope throughout. This was a well-written, moving story that will stay with readers long afterward. I think this beautifully written story is an important read for fans of historical fiction.