Dear Reader,

 

Thank you very much for picking up Three Sisters, a story I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to tell. Throughout my career as a writer I’ve been lucky enough to meet and talk to some amazing people. It’s because of your help and support as readers that I have been able to share the stories of Lale and Gita, of Cilka, and now of Cibi, Magda and Livia.

The story of these three incredible sisters came to me through a most extraordinary set of circumstances. I was in South Africa on a book tour, when my daughter contacted me to say she’d had an email from a man who had been visiting his mother Livia in Israel and had brought a copy of The Tattooist of Auschwitz for her, as she and her sisters are Holocaust survivors. ‘That must be Lale and Gita’s story,’ Livia said when she saw the book. ‘I was in Birkenau with them – and Gita and I were at school together.’ This man, Oded Ravek, who I now think of as a brother, asked if I would come to Israel to meet Livia and her sister Magda. Their older sister, Cibi, is sadly no longer alive.

What could I do? I got straight on a plane to Tel Aviv, where I met Livia and Magda, and heard the incredible story they had to share and which you have just read. The sisters were from Vranov nad Topl’ou, Slovakia. At just fifteen, Livia was ordered to Auschwitz by the Nazis. Cibi, only nineteen herself, followed Livia, determined to protect her sister, or die with her. Magda, aged seventeen, escaped capture for a time but was transported to the death camp. Reunited, the three sisters made a promise to each other: to live. Their fight for survival took them from the hell of Auschwitz-Birkenau, to a death march across war-torn Europe and eventually home to Slovakia, now under Communist rule. Determined to begin again, they embarked on a voyage of renewal, to Israel. Magda and Livia are in Israel today, surrounded by family and friends. Livia and Magda and their children and grandchildren have become family to me. And I was truly honoured when they entrusted me with their story, and asked that I reimagine it in Three Sisters. It is my pleasure to share Three Sisters with my readers. It is a heartbreaking, inspirational and uplifting story that I am honoured to tell the world. I hope you enjoyed it.

If you would like more information about what I’m working on now or about my books, Three Sisters, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka’s Journey and Stories of Hope, you can visit http://eepurl.com/dIuF-P where you can join My Readers’ Club. It only takes a few moments to sign up, there are no catches or costs and new members will automatically receive an exclusive message from me. My publisher, Bonnier Books UK, will keep your data private and confidential, and it will never be passed on to a third party. We won’t spam you with loads of emails, just get in touch now and again with news about my books, and you can unsubscribe any time you want. And if you would like to get involved in a wider conversation about my books, please do review Three Sisters on Amazon, on GoodReads, on any other e-store, on your own blog and social media accounts, or talk about it with friends, family or reader groups. Sharing your thoughts helps other readers, and I always enjoy hearing about what people experience from my writing.

Many thanks again for reading Three Sisters. I hope, if you haven’t done so already, you might like to read Lale and Gita’s story in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka’s story in Cilka’s Journey and find out about the inspiration behind the books through a series of tales of the remarkable people I have met, the incredible stories they have shared with me, and the lessons they hold for us all in Stories of Hope.

 

With my very best wishes,