The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Dr. Edith Eva Eger (eBook)

The Choice is a life-changing book that will provide hope and comfort to generations of readers.

Synopsis -

 
At the age of sixteen, Edith Eger was sent to Auschwitz. Hours after her parents were killed, Nazi officer Dr. Josef Mengele, forced Edie to dance for his amusement and her survival. Edie was pulled from a pile of corpses when the American troops liberated the camps in 1945.

Edie spent decades struggling with flashbacks and survivor’s guilt, determined to stay silent and hide from the past. Thirty-five years after the war ended, she returned to Auschwitz and was finally able to fully heal and forgive the one person she’d been unable to forgive—herself.

Edie weaves her remarkable personal journey with the moving stories of those she has helped heal. She explores how we can be imprisoned in our own minds and shows us how to find the key to freedom

Review - 

This book was unexpected in the best way.  When I saw it, I assumed it would mostly focus on the author's story of surviving the Holocaust.  While that is what she shares in the first half, and it is very hard to read, she shared it with a purpose.  It is the background that, combined with her journey in the back in the real world, as well as the stories of some of her patients, helps readers understand how healing can be found even after experiencing trauma. 

The first half lead me through the reality of concentration camps - hunger, long marches and trauma - but also offered the truth that small moments of kindness and joy can be found even while in dark places.  It is amazing that she survived, especially as she was lying in a pile of bodies on the edge of death when the soldiers came. At first she couldn't even raise her hand to signal she was alive.  Her road to recover physically was long, but her emotional healing took years. 

My biggest take away is that our early traumas and the difficult challenges we go through are always with us.  I thought healing meant they disappeared. Instead they are woven into fabric of our life story.  Eger shares she continued to have flashbacks from her holocaust experiences her whole life.  However, she also had a joyful life full of purpose.  Freedom of choice is always there. Instead of living in the past and being tied to the trauma, we can chose to live in the present and focus on compassion, humor, optimism, intuition, curiosity, and self-expression.

I highly recommend The Choice for anyone who is struggling with the aftermath of trauma and/or loss and grief, but please note if your trauma involves physical abuse, it could be triggering. 

Buy the Book: Amazon US  ~  Amazon CA

Meet the Author -

Edith Eva Eger is a Hungarian American psychologist, a Holocaust survivor and a specialist in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. A native of Hungary, Edith Eger was a teenager in 1944 when she and her family were sent to Auschwitz during the Second World War. Despite overwhelming odds, Edith survived the Holocaust and moved with her husband to the United States. Having worked in a factory while raising her young family, she went on to graduate with a PhD from the University of Texas and became an eminent psychologist. Today, she maintains a busy clinical practice and lectures around the world. Her memoir entitled The Choice: Embrace the Possible, published in 2017, became an international bestseller. Her second book, titled The Gift: 12 Lessons to Save Your Life was published in September 2020.

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