Between Shades of Gray

Set in 1941, Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys is a heartbreaking book all about fifteen-year-old Lina, who gets deported from her homeland of Lithuania to Siberia, along with her mother Elena and ten-year-old brother, Jonas. I first discovered it whilst browsing through the teenage section in Waterstones, and the dark concept both sickened me and intrigued me instantly. For a while now, I have been particularly enjoying books set in 1930s and 1940s Europe, and this small yet gripping and powerful novel was no exception.

Right from the very first few pages, it is easy to see what sort of book this is going to be. In fact, I could feel my throat burning with tears whilst reading even the first chapter, watching as Russian Communist guards (the NKVD) force Lina and her family out of their home, in many cases pushing them, spitting on them and refusing to tell them anything that they deserve to know. From this point onwards, the book grows darker still, following Lina and her family as they are taken from Lithuania and into Russia, stuffed into a dark, cramped train carriage with minimal amounts of food and not even a toilet for weeks, as they journey far across the world into Siberia.

For those who don’t know, in 1941, the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) were under Russia’s control, governed by Communist dictator Josef Stalin. Anyone considered to be anti-Communist (which included doctors, teachers, writers and even librarians) were sent out to the wasteland that is Siberia, forced into prisons and labour camps and treated like dirt. Throughout the book, I was sickened to the core constantly by how the NKVD treated the deportees. Describing them as being ‘treated like slaves’ or even ‘treated like animals’ seems generous—the deportees were in fact mostly treated as though they didn’t even deserve to be alive. They were pushed around, spit on, made to do tough labour from sunrise until dark every day without even getting Christmas Day off, and were paid nothing and given a piece of bread a day. Children, such as ten-year-old Jonas in the story, but in many cases even younger than him, were made to do this. If anyone resisted, they were shot. Though the novel is not a true story, it is based on true accounts from survivors and the author, Ruta Sepetys’ father was a Lithuanian during the war who managed to escape into Germany. However, she had family who experienced these horrors, and therefore the story is about as realistic as any account of this dark period of human history could be.

One moment that got me was the point in the book where one character announces that ‘Hitler has invaded Lithuania,’ and the general atmosphere becomes one of cheer and joy. Here in the West, we are taught from a young age about the countless despicable horrors that the German dictator Adolf Hitler committed, so to see these characters actually being happy about him invading their country shows perhaps more than anything just how much they suffered under Stalin’s rule.

I won’t say that reading the book is a pleasurable experience, as I seemed to be crying, or at least close to tears, more evenings than I was not. The book sickened me, making me realise more than anything has done before that humanity can be truly evil. However, it still manages to be an incredible little novel. One of the key themes that runs through it is hope. Hope is what keeps all the characters going, and at some points, the characters—most of whom are kind, compassionate, good-natured people who have done nothing wrong—really are in a place that could be described as Hell. And yet, when it comes to it, they all struggle to stay alive rather than just fall into death, which would be so much easier. The fact that they so desperately cling to life and to each other is inspiring. The story shows the very worst of humanity, but within that is a tiny little sliver of the very best of it. Gripping, intriguing and powerful, it really makes you think about yourself and how lucky we are here in the west to have our freedom, and makes sure that you don’t take anything, not even food and drink, for granted for a long while after putting the book down. This book is not for the faint-hearted, but I still strongly recommend it to anyone who is looking for an interesting, powerful and thought-provoking read.