Author: Ruta Sepetys
Title: Between Shades of Gray
Narrator:Emily Klein
Publication Info: Penguin Audio (2011)
Summary/Review:
This novel set in the World War II-era depicts the oppression of Lithuanian partisans through the eyes of 15-year-old Lina. A promising young artists, Lina and her mother and brother are rounded up by the NKVD with other women, children, the elderly, and disabled and transported to a labor camp in Siberia. The narrative depicts the hardscrabble life as Lina and her community in the labor camp as they struggle to survive. But there are also moments of joy and unexpected solace. It’s a decent novel and an introduction to the Stalinist persecution of Lithuania.
Recommended books: Stalemate by Icchokas Meras, The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov, and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Rating: **1/2
