Between Shades of Gray

By: Ruta Sepetys

Narrated by: Emily Klein

Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

An international best seller, a number-one New York Times best seller, and now a major motion picture!

Ruta Sepetys's Between Shades of Gray is now the film Ashes in the Snow!

"Few books are beautifully written, fewer still are important; this novel is both." (The Washington Post)

From New York Times and international best seller and Carnegie Medal winner Ruta Sepetys, author of Salt to the Sea, comes a story of loss and of fear - and ultimately, of survival.

A New York Times notable book

An international best seller

A Carnegie Medal nominee

A William C. Morris Award finalist

A Golden Kite Award winner

Fifteen-year-old Lina is a Lithuanian girl living an ordinary life - until Soviet officers invade her home and tear her family apart. Separated from her father and forced onto a crowded train, Lina, her mother, and her young brother make their way to a Siberian work camp, where they are forced to fight for their lives. Lina finds solace in her art, documenting these events by drawing. Risking everything, she imbeds clues in her drawings of their location and secretly passes them along, hoping her drawings will make their way to her father's prison camp. But will strength, love, and hope be enough for Lina and her family to survive? A moving and haunting novel perfect for fans of The Book Thief.

Praise for Between Shades of Gray:

"Superlative. A hefty emotional punch." (The New York Times Book Review)

"Heart-wrenching... an eye-opening reimagination of a very real tragedy written with grace and heart." (The Los Angeles Times)

"At once a suspenseful, drama-packed survival story, a romance, and an intricately researched work of historial fiction." (The Wall Street Journal)

"Beautifully written and deeply felt... An important book that deserves the widest possible readership." (Booklist, starred review)

©2011 Ruta Sepetys (P)2011 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

Winner, Indies Choice Book Award

“Few books are beautifully written, fewer still are important; this novel is both.” (The Washington Post)

"Beautiful...a superb though grueling novel.” (The Wall Street Journal)

Captivating.

What a terrifying and sad story filled with courage and amazing displays of strength. Thank you for bringing stories like this to light.

Outstandkng

This is history is important for us to know. The telling of it is heartfelt and miving.

I appreciate books that teach us about history that most of us don’t realize happened.

I appreciate the story written here because I didn’t know about these victims and survivors during this time period. You usually just learn about Hitler, Nazis and the holocaust in school. And it’s taught as if that was all that occurred. And it was a lot! It’s been an eye opener for me to learn what was happening in China at the time of World War ll and now to learn about the civilians sent to Siberia. It’s a beautiful story about the human spirit and how it can rise above the suffering and the pain. Thank you for writing this story.

Amazing book

Loved this book and I enjoyed hearing this part of history brought to life. Five stars all around!

Very Powerful!

I hesitated to read this book because of the subject matter, but this is not the typical Holocaust story. Its the story of a Lithuanian family exile to Sibera by Stalin. The story is told by Lina a fifteen year old girl.

I connected to this emotionally it reminded me a bit of The Diary of Anne Frank. Although the story was heartbreaking it was exceptionally written. There was a nice balance between sorrow, survival and bravery. Its a very gritty story of a time in history I wasn't even aware of.

Great reader/voice very easy to understand and pleasant to listen to. Once I started I couldnt put it down. So glad I found this book, its going on my favorite list.

Moving, but painful story

Historical fiction that is sad, but well worth the listen. An engrossing story and good writing make this book very good, even though the story is serious and sad.

Riveting and Authentic

I was hooked on the character of Lina and her story from the first moment. So much of what the author wrote resonated with my own Lithuanian family’s history. In fact, the book somehow made that history more real—probably because the author colored in real historical details that I’d never asked about or even imagined.

WWII - Another Side of the Story

What Sepetys says is absolutely correct, most people know very well the story of Hitler and the Nazis, but few are aware of how many died at the hands of "The Man of Steel", Josef Stalin. So much is missing from our history books. So much of WWII has been lost or simply hidden in the minds of the survivors. So many died at the hands of the Japanese, as well. Those who know anything about the war always think of Western Europe, very little has been revealed of the suffering of Eastern Europe, Eurasia, South East Asia, and Oceania. There is so much research that needs to be done, so many voices that deserve to be heard, and so many stories that deserve to be told. I can only hope in living be the famous words: "History must be told so that it may never repeat itself" that indeed more is revealed through works like this of historical fiction, memoirs of survivors, biographies, and autobiographies, so that the worse stages of human history never, indeed, repeat themselves, and that every victim is remember as a single or part of a collective. Yes, 6-million Jews perished, but so did 20-million Lithuanians, Estonians, and other victims at Russian hands; 24.5 million at the hands of the Japanese. How many victims will we never know about? Wonderful book! Beautifully written for the author's first. I look forward to reading more.

A history everyone should know

This is a part of history that is not widely known, but should be. Especially for those who take advantage of the freedoms that they have, with no appreciation or respect for them. A beautiful and terribly sad story

AMAZING

A great over all story to tell and everything I read it I fall more in love with the book and the characters.