Heather Morris

Heather Morris (born 1953) is a New Zealand author who lives in Australia. Her 2018 debut novel was The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Early life and family Heather Morris was born in 1953 in Te Awamutu in the North Island of New Zealand. She later moved with her family to the town of Pirongia, and graduated from Te Awamutu High School. In interviews, she stated that as a child she knew nothing about the Holocaust.

In 1971, she moved to Melbourne; there she met and married Steve Morris in 1973. In 1975, she returned to New Zealand with her husband and settled in Christchurch.

She began studying at the University of Canterbury in 1986 but returned to Melbourne in 1987 and graduated from Monash University with a BA in Political Science and Sociology in 1991.

Career In 1996, Morris enrolled in a professional writing course at the Australian College of Journalism. She has participated in screenwriting lectures, seminars and creative workshops both in Australia and the US. Her first script was reviewed by the Oscar-winning author and screenwriter Pamela Wallace.

In 2003, she met and befriended Lale Sokolov, two months after the death of his wife, Gita. He was 87 years old at the time. For the next three years, until his death in 2006, Lale told her details about his life during the Holocaust and his work as a tattooist in the Auschwitz concentration camp, a job he had been assigned to by the camp's S.S. administrators. Based on his stories, Morris later wrote The Tattooist of Auschwitz, initially as a screenplay. Although the screenplay was optioned by an Australian film company, the company did not exercise its right and the option lapsed after six years. She then entered her work in international competitions where she won many honours including the International Independent Film Awards in 2016.

Eventually, Morris was persuaded by her sister-In-law to rewrite the screenplay as a novel, which she titled The Tattooist of Auschwitz. The book, released in 2018, became a bestseller. It was published in over 50 countries around the world and sold tens of millions of copies. In 2018, it was #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list and #1 on The New York Times international bestseller list. In 2024, the book was adapted into the miniseries The Tattooist of Auschwitz, with Harvey Keitel as Lale Sokolov and Melanie Lynskey as Morris.

The third book in the trilogy Three Sisters, about three sisters who together survive Auschwitz, arrive in Slovakia and immigrate to Israel, was released in 2021. Some of the main characters are Margaret Dryburgh, an English teacher and missionary, and Norah Chambers, who had trained at the Royal Academy of Music; the novel shows how the a capella choir that the pair created, the Women's Vocal Orchestra of Sumatra, kept up camp morale. The arrangements and compositions, especially "The Captives' Hymn", are still performed. The audiobook version of Sisters Under the Rising Sun includes recordings by the Sydney Women's Vocal Orchestra.

Published works

The Tattooist of Auschwitz trilogy

2018 - The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Bonnier Books UK (UK and Australia) and HarperCollins Publishers (USA). New edition in 2024 2019 - Cilka's Journey, St. Martin's Publishing Group 2021 - Three Sisters, Center Point Large Print

Other novels

2020 - Stories of Hope, Bonnier Books UK 2022 - Listening Well, St. Martin's Publishing Group 2023 - Sisters Under the Rising Sun, St. Martin's Publishing Group 2025 - The Wish Zaffre, Bonnier Books UK 2026 - The Piano Teacher of Montparnasse, Firefinch Publishing