BESTSELLING KIWI AUTHOR'S DREAM COME TRUE

Heather Morris is thrilled her book, The Tattooist Of Auschwitz, is about to hit screens

- Lucy Croke, Josie Rozenberg-Clarke

As soon as a book becomes a bestseller, you can bet Hollywood comes knocking  and that's exactly what happened with Te Awamutuborn author Heather Morris' 2018 debut novel, The Tattooist Of Auschwitz.

"Within six months, there were lots of conversations with studios going on," smiles Heather, 71. Now, six years on, after selling more than 12 million copies, the book is finally coming to our screens in the form of a six-part series.

The Tattooist tells the reallife story of Lale Sokolov, d a Jewish Slovakian who was tasked with inking numbers on his fellow World War II prisoners as they entered notorious concentration camp Auschwitz, where he met his wife Gita Furman.

While they were both living in Melbourne, Lale shared his incredible survival story with Heather before his death, at age 90, in 2006. She originally wrote it as a screenplay, not a novel, so she's stoked it's been turned into a series.

"For me, it always should have been on the screen," Heather says. "That's how  I wrote it and how Lale wanted it, so that was the dream." While the series is faithful to the book, a major change is that Heather herself features as a character. Scenes from the war are intercut with modernday moments where viewers see the older Lale, played by Harvey Keitel, telling his story to social worker-turned-writer Heather, played by Kiwi star Melanie Lynskey.