Author: Ruta Sepetys
Series: None
Publisher: Philomel Books
Publication Date: March 22, 2011
Genre: Historical Fiction; Young Adult
Pages: 344
Format: Hardback
Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives.Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives.Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.
“Don’t give them anything Lina, not even your fear.”
Everyone’s heard of the Holocaust. Everyone’s heard of Hitler. But how many people have heard of Stalin? Or the Baltic cleansing? How many know about the eradication of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia? Honestly, I didn’t actually know who Stalin was and what his reign held for Russia until High School English when we read Animal Farm. I didn’t know that his actions rivaled that of Hitler’s. I read this book with only the vague summary that the main character was a girl who was sent to a labor camp. Labor camp made me think of the Holocaust and Germany. I was surprised to find that it was actually about Stalin’s genocide of the Baltic people. This book told me a story about a time in history that I had heard next to nothing about.
“I hated them, the NKVD and the Soviets. I planted a seed of hatred in my heart. I swore it would grow to be a massive tree whose roots would strangle them all.”
Books like these put me in a mindset where I continuously wonder how I would act if I were in a situation like this. If everything I owned was taken away from me and my life was being torn apart at the seams and if I woke up each morning not knowing if I would see tomorrow’s sunrise. What truly amazed me in this book was the amount of generosity and hope they harbored even when they owned nothing but their dignity and self-respect. Especially the mother of Lina, Elena. She would always find a way to give when she had nothing. Lina’s strength and resolve were inspiring and awe-striking. Sepetys created a story that we can only read and shake our heads in wonder at.
“It was the one thing I never questioned. I wanted to live. I wanted to see my brother grow up. I wanted to see Lithuania again. I wanted to see Joana. I wanted to smell the lily of the valley on the breeze beneath my window. I wanted to paint the fields. I wanted to see Andrius with my drawings. There were only two possible outcomes in Siberia. Success meant survival. Failure meant death. I wanted life. I wanted to survive.”
Ruta Sepetys was the daughter of a Lithuanian refugee and decided to write this story to tell the truth that so few people have heard. After the Baltic people escaped from their prisons, they were not allowed to tell anyone of their horrific experiences. They had to keep it within themselves and remember what they went through by themselves. In the Author’s Note, Sepetys bids her readers to “Please research it. Tell someone.” And reminds us that “These three tiny nations have taught us that love is the most powerful army. Whether love of friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy–love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit.”
I would recommend this book to anyone so that they could learn about something they've probably only heard little about. What this book lacked in magical writing, it made up for in the gasp-inducing and heart-pounding story line. This book is filled with death, life, happiness, and sorrow. Inspired by true accounts, this book will stay with me for a long time.
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