Morris’s debut as an author provides readers with the memoir of Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew forcibly transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in April 1942, and how his perseverance kept him and others alive during the atrocities and horrors surrounding them. The book is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook formats, as well as at your local library through the Libby App. The audiobook is narrated by Richard Armitage, who does the work great justice. Although, listeners can tell that Morris’ writing style is suited more towards the young adult audience since the Lale’s story is not really comprehensively told, too much seems to be left out, the gruesome scenes are glanced at as if painted at distance without color nothing for the audience to connect with making it hard to feel empathy for the characters, which is shame for such powerful subject.

Lale, a charming young man, manages to survive despite bringing himself to the attention of the SS officers on repeated occasions and in severe ways; one of the officers even comments to Lale once that he must be a cat to get so many reprieves from the death wall. Yet, Lale doesn’t cease his attempts to collect diamonds, rubies, and other jewels, as well as money from the people working in the sorting of prisoners’ clothes, which he barter for food, chocolate, and medicine that he distributes among the camps. His duty as the tattooist gives him a bit more freedom to roam, and so it’s not unusual for him to move from block to block. It’s also as a tattooist that he meets Gita, a young woman whose number he must rebrand, and when he looks at her, he can’t believe it’s in this ugly place that he finally understands what his mother told him a long time ago: when you see her, you’ll know, Lale. And he knew he loved her.

Lale and Gita manage to meet on many occasions thanks to the bribes Lale brings to the SS officer in charge of Gita’s block. Morris portrays how their blossoming love in times of carnage and despair serves as a beacon of hope, an anchor to survival. When the war nears its end and the Russian army frees the camps, they are separated. But neither of them gives up hope, and they find each other again, eventually marry, and have a son.

What is very sad about this book is that the author’s writing style didn’t do the story justice. The detached manner in which she broaches the violence, suffering, and the matter-of-fact statement of ash falling as crematoriums burn lacks emotion. The ones pulling at the reader’s or listener’s heartstrings that connect us to the story. The only genuine emotions was in foreword written by Lale and Gita’s son, here the audience got a sense of familial love, pride, and sadness, he would have perhaps been a better choice in writing his father’s memoir since he showcased who his parents were in the few pages of the foreword better then the author did in over two hundred pages which is why this book only gets 2.5 stars.