The Choice was acclaimed a Best Seller by the New York Times and came to me highly recommended. Dr Edith Eger is the 90-year author and an internationally known psychologist.
It begins with her Hungarian Jewish family living in an active neighbourhood and then eventually the rumblings of war, the Nazis, restrictions imposed, and eventually the movement of family and neighbours to Auschwitz in the cattle car of a crowded train. At arrival into the camp separation of parents and children occurs. Edith, a teenager excelling in ballet and gymnastics is allowed to remain with her sister while her dear Mom and Dad are separated and faced immediate death.
“Hope is the boldest act of imagination I know”
Edith and her sister are courageous survivors of horrific trauma. However, throughout their years of concentration, they maintained that hope was essential. Hope for another day urged them on each day. “Hope is the boldest act of imagination I know,” Edith writes. In 1945, the prisoners in the camp are liberated by the American soldiers. Edith is discovered among the dying prisoners. In her study and work as a psychologist, Edith discovers a valuable way to use her personal traumatic, experiences to assist others:
“Our painful experiences aren’t a liability, they are a gift.”
-Sister Mabel St. Louis, csj
““Change is about interrupting the habits and patterns that no longer serve us” ”