The Night Sparrow

A Novel

By: Shelly Sanders

Narrated by: Gilli Messer

For fans of Kate Quinn and The Nightingale, a gripping story of a young Jewish girl who joins an elite Russian sniper unit and embarks on a mission targeting the highest prize of World War II: Adolph Hitler.

With the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Elena Bruskina’s world collapses. The ambitious university student and her Jewish family are quickly forced into the Minsk ghetto where thousands are immediately murdered, including her father and brother. Then her younger sister is publicly executed on false charges and her mother is shot. Alone with her grief, Elena escapes the ghetto, determined to avenge her family’s deaths.

Heading to Moscow, she enrolls in the Red Army’s newly created Central Women’s Sniper Training School. After rigorous training, she becomes a member of an all-female sniper platoon, a community of brave young women willing to give their lives to defend their country. Then Elena is chosen for a secret mission—a daring and highly dangerous plan to capture the face of evil itself: Hitler.

Inspired by the real-life female snipers and interpreters in the Red Army during World War II, The Night Sparrow is a portrait of friendship, resilience, courage, and sacrifice under extraordinary circumstances.

Women’s stories

A bit too long, yet like the spirit of Jewish perspective of being a Jewish women in Russia between pogroms & Soviet Stalinist Russia.

Excellent storyteller

I had never heard of this author before Daughters of the Occupation, which I listened to before The night Sparrow. Loved both of these books.

Soviet Jewish Sniper WWII POV

The Night Sparrow was an intense WWII novel told through the eyes of a Soviet Jewish sniper. It was a perspective that I have never come across and one that I never would have thought about, which is a shame but so thankful for this book so I could have another view. What really stood out to me about this novel was the women's experience and hand in the wars, especially when it is on the front line. Elena was not only a sniper but also a translator. She had a hand in getting confirmation that the jawbone that was recovered outside Hitler's bunker was indeed his and that he was dead.

Every chapter had a quote from a Red Army Sniper, a graduate of the sniper school, a philosopher, Psalm, etc and each of them were SO impactful and set the tone for the chapter.