The Choice: Escaping the Past and Embracing the Possible
By Edith Eger
A Review by Shelley Kassian
A must read, Edith Eger delivers a compelling true-to-life memoir, not only about surviving internment at Auschwitz (a Nazi death camp), but also finding purpose in her latter life by helping others as a psychologist. In this emotional account, a novel I won’t soon forget, it’s the traumatic recollections of the author’s life combined with her profession as a doctor that give meaning to the novel. The author’s courage, the will to rise above acts of brutality, to overcome the scars, and the patients and recollections of how they’ve been helped, make this novel a must read for anyone wanting to learn how to cope with past trauma. I’ve visited Auschwitz. I felt it necessary to see this place. A moment in the novel that resonated with me was the quietness of the death camp, the lack of birdsong, as if the land cannot escape the evil. The Choice is a poignant reminder that while each human being has a past, we must try to overcome our individual pains, whatever they might be, and look to the future: Each of us can live a beautiful life if we take the necessary steps to reach enlightenment.