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  • The Choice

  • Escaping the Past and Embracing the Possible
  • Written by: Dr. Edith Eva Eger
  • Narrated by: Tovah Feldshuh
  • Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (424 ratings)

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The Choice

Written by: Dr. Edith Eva Eger
Narrated by: Tovah Feldshuh
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Publisher's Summary

A powerful, moving memoir - and a practical guide to healing - written by Dr. Edith Eva Eger, an eminent psychologist whose own experiences as a Holocaust survivor help her treat patients and allow them to escape the prisons of their own minds.

Edith Eger was 16 years old when the Nazis came to her hometown in Hungary and took her Jewish family to an internment center and then to Auschwitz. Her parents were sent to the gas chamber by Joseph Mengele soon after they arrived at the camp. Hours later Mengele demanded that Edie dance a waltz to "The Blue Danube" and rewarded her with a loaf of bread that she shared with her fellow prisoners. These women later helped save Edie's life. Edie and her sister survived Auschwitz, were transferred to the Mauthausen and Gunskirchen camps in Austria, and managed to live until the American troops liberated the camps in 1945 and found Edie in a pile of dying bodies.

One of the few living Holocaust survivors to remember the horrors of the camps, Edie has chosen to forgive her captors and find joy in her life every day. Years after she was liberated from the concentration camps, Edie went back to college to study psychology. She combines her clinical knowledge and her own experiences with trauma to help others who have experienced painful events large and small. Dr. Eger has counselled veterans suffering from PTSD, women who were abused, and many others who learned that they, too, can choose to forgive, find resilience, and move forward. She lectures frequently on the power of love and healing.

The Choice weaves Eger's personal story with case studies from her work as a psychologist. Her patients and their stories illustrate different phases of healing and show how people can choose to escape the prisons they construct in their minds and find freedom, regardless of circumstance. Eger's story is an inspiration for everyone. And her message is powerful and important: "Your pain matters and is worth healing: You can choose to be joyful and free." She is 89 years old and still dancing.

©2017 Edith Eva Eger (P)2017 Simon & Schuster Audio

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What listeners love about The Choice

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Breathtakingly beautiful!

I don’t think there is a human on this planet who would not benefit from this book. My life will not be the same as it was before listening to it. Dr. Eger writes with passion and gets so far into your heart that you are moved deeply by it. I’m so grateful for the choices I’ve made that lead to me buying this book and I hope anyone reading this chooses to also buy it and read it/listen to it.

4 people found this helpful

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Life changing!!

Thank you Dr. Egar 🙏!! I've never written a review for a book before. But I'm intensely compelled to share how helpful and life changing this book was for me.

Dr. Egar's gentle approach in explaining her approach with her clients and with herself is so very humbling. To have experienced so much pain and to make the sequence of choices she's made.... That we too can make to improve our lives is intensely inspiring.

Get the book.... You will not regret it! I finished it in days!

Will definitely be re-listening to it again soon.

There's sooo so much value in this book. Enjoy!!
Stay safe.

3 people found this helpful

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Beautiful and heart wrenching

As a daughter of Hungarian immigrants, this story told by Dr.Eger touched me so deeply. It was almost as if I was listening to my mother talk about her childhood, or lack of. It made me think about all that she had gone through and how she's survived. This audible book was beautifully written and the narrative was impeccable. A+++

2 people found this helpful

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A beautiful life Journey to healing.

Dr. Eger,
You are an Angel.
Truly inspirational and breathtaking.
Will turn you inside out.
Thank You.

2 people found this helpful

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A survivor who becomes healer

inspirational story told by Dr. Egar has a healing power that can help us heal from horrors and trauma by understanding that we have a choice.

1 person found this helpful

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Stunning. Heart-wrenching. Deeply inspiring

An honor to bear witness to this story through its telling. I am humbled and deeply moved.
The reader bears her heart in her performance of Dr.Egers tale. Masterful.
I hope all who listen are inspired to find their own freedom.

1 person found this helpful

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Embrace the possible

I enjoyed every word of this book. It made me become introspective about my own painful past and caused me to exam some of the choices I have made to fulfill my life with happiness and accomplishment. I have survived and I have flourished. I have chosen not to repeat the painful mistakes of those in my past. I have survived and I feel fulfilled. This is a book that will make you feel sad or happy; it is for you to decide.

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Finding strength and learning in any situation

Listening to Edith in conversation with Oprah on Super Soul Sunday inspired me to listen to her recent book The Choice. An unbelievable story of the human spirit and strength we can all find within us under any circumstance! Thank-you Edith for sharing your life’s journey and learnings!

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  • Sim
  • 2020-05-24

Great read!

I love the story and the courage of Dr. Eger.
Excellent read for any one who wants to be emotionally strong.

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Remarkable

A beautiful true story of atrocity, pain, overwhelm, working through, healing, and triumph. Brilliantly written and narrated!

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  • R. F. Wood
  • 2018-05-11

One Of The Most Powerful Books I Have Read in My Lifetime!

Words can not describe the incredible gift Dr. Eger has given the world with this book! I am so moved by the book, her story, what she has done for so many people, our military servicemen and women and many others. This book and her story will live forever and I know that I will re-read it and cherish it for all my life. And offer it to family and friends wherever I go. I have The Choice in both Audible and hardcover. It is great on Audible. God Bless Edith and her family and her gift!

27 people found this helpful

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  • Pennypie
  • 2017-11-12

Please read!

Of all the many, many wonderful books I’ve recently read and heard, this is the most compelling, brilliant, lovely, human, and potentially life-changing, life-saving book. Please do not miss it.

25 people found this helpful

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  • Revive
  • 2018-03-14

This is a gem! A must read, classic!

I am a Family Physician/Geriatrician. The first hand account of Dr Egar’s ordeal invaluable in itself, and provides a beautiful, validating context for the demonstration of her Choice Therapy. Listening to the book is inspiring and so full of profoundly simple Truth that one feels you have had the blessing of personal counsel from this very special lady! J. C. Hendrix MD, San Diego CA

19 people found this helpful

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  • AMD
  • 2020-05-06

Tova Feldshuh’s fake Hungarian accent ruined this

I can’t imagine what reasoning led to the decision to have Tova Feldshuh read this book with a thick —and very fake— “generic Eastern European” accent. She obviously can read in unaccented English demonstrated by her reading of the title, and chapter. It is insulting to the author and the listeners alike and totally ruins the experience.

14 people found this helpful

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  • Gretta's Mom
  • 2019-03-20

A triumph of a life and a book

I listened to this book right after listening to Viktor Frankl 's Man's search for Meaning- just by coincidence. It gave much more poignancy to have the two works listened to so close in proximity. Edie, thank you for sharing your work, your life and your heart. You are a gift to me and the world:) it was fantastic to hear Edie's voice before the narrator ( who did a terrific job). The story keeps you engrossed. It is sad and hopeful at the same time.

13 people found this helpful

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  • Marjorie
  • 2018-03-17

Best book !

This is a true story that’s not only a gripping novel but an inspiration to everyone who reads it! I can’t recommend it highly enough.

13 people found this helpful

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  • B Mac
  • 2019-01-14

I love this author ❤️

What a beautiful book and a beautiful soul! This was a great book about strength and coming out of darkness’s into the light. Always choose the light!

12 people found this helpful

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  • Mari Errico
  • 2019-01-10

Remarkable

An amazing life-changing story. Written with authenticity. Performed remarkably. An informative perspective on trauma and therapy.

11 people found this helpful

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  • Pékó Éva
  • 2019-02-10

I loved the story but not the narrator

I loved the text. I didn't like to listen to the narrator. Her mother tongue is neither English nor Hungarian(perhaps sold to so). As a Hungarian, it was strange to hear both English and Hungarian words with a third accent.

8 people found this helpful

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  • gbakertx
  • 2019-01-11

Life Changing

This book is extremely well written and performed. I have listened to many holocaust books and novels, but this book is unique in that it's purpose is more than just telling a story or testifying to personal experiences. Dr. Eger's purpose in writing this book seems to be that of helping readers / listeners find healing and freedom of their own. Her personal story is fascinating to say the least. I was gripped from beginning to end. There are 3 parts to the book - all masterfully intertwined together. The narrator is fantastic and her performance made me feel as if I were living out Dr. Eger's life with her. I highly recommend this book to everyone!

8 people found this helpful

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  • Amsatou
  • 2023-01-23

A must read

I am still under a spell. What a gripping, wonderful and needed story. Thank you Dr. Eger for sharing a part of you with the world.