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Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys reveals the grace and strength of the Lithuanian nation in one of its darkest hours. The story of Lina and her family is one of the most powerful I have ever read and is at the same time a tragedy of epic proportions and a triumph of the human spirit.
As someone of Lithuanian descent, I found that it spoke to my very soul with voices and in places I never knew existed. Not only does Between Shades of Gray stand as a literary masterpiece, it also stands up to history, documenting a time period where a nation and region (the Baltics) lost over a third of their population due to Stalinist atrocities.
The novel centers around Lina Vilkas, her mother Elena, and the heroine’s younger brother Jonas. In 1941 the family is ruthlessly rounded up, separated from their father, and shipped off to a Siberian labor camp over 8,000 miles away. With their lives in danger literally every moment of every day, this story is really about an outlook on life and the strength this family draws from their national character to never give up.
“No. Don’t be scared. Don’t give them anything, Lina, not even your fear.” 5
Author Ruta Sepetys based this historical fiction on stories inspired from her own grandfather who was an officer in the Lithuanian army. What makes Between Shades of Gray so amazing is that it is the product of factual research, mainly through interviews with actual survivors who graciously shared their stories for all of us to remember. Lithuania is a nation proud of its language, history, and culture, and like many of its diaspora, Ruta Sepetys yearned to learn more about her heritage through the vehicle of literature.
“I tell people that I wrote the book, but it’s not my story. The story belongs to the people of the Baltics…” p.351
I’ve chosen to focus my book review more on the author and the sense of national pride that is encapsulated by this book rather than the actual plot line, only because it is a novel that is best read without any preconceptions about the characters and their adventures. The worst way to try a new dish is to intellectualize it; one must simply partake of it! Between Shades of Gray is a jewel in my book collection and will always stay with me as one of the books I’ve read that has moved be to such a profoundly personal degree. This book is being made into a movie called “Ashes In The Snow!”
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