Heartrending story of a family that's wrested from their home in Lithuania by the Soviets during WWII. Lots of stuff I never knew about the unrest.

Totally worthwhile read, if sad in many places. ( )

"Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brother's was worth a pocket watch."

"We were thousands of kilometers away from our home, and they were forcing us to march in a direction that was taking us farther and farther from everything we knew."

I received Between Shades of Gray as part of a gift box. Having lived in Estonia just after they re-gained independence from the Soviet Union, the topic immediately interested me. I had heard about the deportations to Siberia, but hadn't realised how similar they were to those happening in other parts of Europe at that time nor exactly how harsh the conditions were. I appreciated the balance of themes in the book, contrasting the horrible with moments of hope and love. I also really liked the ending, however, I wish there had been a bit more explanation from the last main chapter to it.

This book stayed with me quite some time. I thought about it regularly and ended up doing a bit of history research after it because of it. ( )

It was good to expand my reading of historical fiction by reading a story that starts in Lithuania in June of 1941. This book explores the journey of young Lina Vilkas (15 years old), her younger brother Jonas, and their mother, as they are pulled from their home by the Soviet secret police (NKVD) and taken into cattle cars with other Lithuanians to labor camps in Siberia. Their father, a university professor was already deported to a prison camp and they are unsure where he is or if they will see him.
As we are taken on this journey with Lina and her family, we meet others in the same situation, all fighting for their lives and clinging to hope. Lina was preparing for art school and brought some art supplies. Throughout the book, she reflects on past memories to sustain her through the hard times. She also secretly relies on her art skills to process what is happening and keep a record of the people and the atrocities. Lina also creates art to try to communicate with her father. The book follows Lina and her time in the labor camps for 12 years and shares the story of the Soviet occupation of the land. I was shocked to learn about the thousands of people forced out of the Baltic states because they were deemed enemies of the state.

The author, Ruta Septys, does a fabulous job sharing lesser-known historical events through her books. Between Shades of Gray has personal significance, as her grandfather was in the Lithuanian army and her grandparents and father fled the country. I'm grateful for the author's telling of a forgotten and unique story that I definitely never learned about in school. The historical context is fascinating and the plot and characters moved the story forward in a way that made me not want to put it down. It was sad, but an emotional and valuable read. ( )

This is a heartbreakingly beautiful novel - and I am so very glad that I read it! In 1939, Lina is just 15 years old when her family is deported from their home in Lithuania and forced to spend years working in labor camps in Siberia, where the conditions were similar to Nazi concentration camps. Despite the devastating circumstances, she amazingly manages to retain her identity, her dignity, her hope for a future of freedom, and even manages to find love. Haunting, horrific, and simply beautiful, this is a book that will be appreciated by teens and adults alike. Highly recommend. ( )

Lina, her younger brother, and her mother are taken from their home one night - while Lina is still in her nightgown - charged as criminals, and crammed into train cars where they deal with filth, starvation, and disease for weeks. Some who begin the trip with them do not survive. Lina's father was taken while he was at work, and the family is desperate for news of his whereabouts and try to find him, or at least find news about him, on neighboring train cars at great risk - they could be killed for sneaking off their own car. When they are finally deposited on a beet farm, they perform backbreaking labor for a few grams of bread each day. Some of the guards also take pleasure in tormenting them - making the prisoners think they are about to be murdered. They live like this for months. Lina, a budding artist, never gives up hope that her father will find his way to them. She does some things I wanted to yell, "Stop! Are you crazy?!" at her for doing, but she's young and desperate to reach out to her father. Throughout their entire ordeal she draws pictures and writes about the people who are sharing their experiences in order to document what is happening to them - and also to leave a sort of trail of breadcrumbs for her father to follow to find them. She passes on a handkerchief, letters, and pieces of wood onto which she has encrypted messages within her artwork, hoping they will eventually find their way to her father.

Eventually, the prisoners end up in Siberia where they labor by building, cutting wood, and fishing for the soldiers who are living in warm buildings with plenty of food while the prisoners live in mud huts that barely keep out any wind or cold and survive on scant bread rations. Cold, disease, and starvation claim the lives of many. Some prisoners also begin to lose their senses - others lose hope. Lina, however, shows great determination and spirit, even in the face of such tragedy.

The ending wraps things up very quickly and I would have liked the epilogue to have given more information about what happened to all the characters into which I had become so invested while reading. However, the whole novel was a very engrossing read - even as it was upsetting to read how inhumane man can be to man.

Although these particular characters are fictional, this is as upsetting a recounting of some of the things that happened to people during this time as was [b:Night|1617|Night |Elie Wiesel|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311999832s/1617.jpg|265616], which I first read years ago. ( )