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I have to say that I found several areas of the book to be doubtful or questionable at best. Others have criticized it as not being accurate in a few areas: for example, the book covers the years 1942-1945 and involves the story of Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov (nee Eisenberg) ability to smuggle penicillin into the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps to save his future wife - Gita Furman when she comes down with a severe illness. Critics point out that penicillin was not massed produced in Europe until after that time frame.
Other critics point out that based on camp records, Gita's prisoner number which was tattooed onto her by Lale could not be the number used in the book. Based on the date she arrived, according to camp records, the number was not high enough.
While I can accept that these two specifics might be incorrect, and might be the result of an 86-year old man's memory lapses, I can overlook them on that basis. I have spent a bit of time around elderly people in the 85-90 range so I know that sometimes, memories fade and the way that we remember some events may not be accurate.
And it was reported that the author fictionalized certain parts of the book, such as when the American plane flies over the camp. The book portrays it as though Lale & Gita were together during this event when in fact, Gita was not with Lale.
But I do have to admit that I found a few events highlighted in the book a bit unbelievable or at least suspicious, such as the "friendship" that is portrayed between Lale and his SS guard. And the ability of Lale & Gita to have sex in the camp. I found these scenes to be a bit unbelievable. The book makes it seem as though there was quite a lot of downtime which was unstructured and allowed Lale and Gita to sneak away for some private alone time. But as I stated previously, I have not read a lot of books (fiction or non-fiction) about Nazi concentration camps so perhaps I am being unfair to the author and the book.
