By: Ruta Sepetys
Format: Hardcover, 338 pages
Published: March 22nd 2011 by Philomel Books
Source: ARC from Publisher
Challenges: 2011 YA Historical Fiction
author website | facebook page
Summary (from Goodreads): 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.
My Review: I've been recommending this book all over the place since I read it. It is incredibly hard to push a book about the mass deportations and murders carried out by Stalin in the 1940's. The reason being that many people just don't know that this happened. It's not taught like the holocaust is in US high schools. I took an AP European History class and it was really only brushed over in our curriculum. However, my parents took it upon themselves to make sure that I knew about the atrocities committed by Stalin and his regime.
This book will break your heart. You will be shocked and horrified by the lack of humanity showed by the Soviet Union. People die. They are ripped from their families. Treated like animals.
What amazed me most was the desperate attempt by those that were being held captive to hold on to their dignity. Especially on the part of Lina's mother. I can't even imagine the courage that would be necessary to keep your children calm and comforted during this horrible experience.
Most of what I read is for entertainment. I recommend books because I like them. This book I recommend because it is a story that needs to be told. Because knowledge is power, and we as a society should do all we can to prevent something like this from ever happening again.
My Rating:
