Salt to the Sea Paperback – August 1, 2017

Ruta Sepetys has a unique gift. She finds the tragic stories that history forgot and brings them to life through her books, educating her readers on these lost pieces of the past while simultaneously taking them on a heartfelt and emotional journey alongside her characters. Salt to the Sea is a work of historical fiction, but it is based on a very real event — the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945 — and the true historical backdrop is every bit as compelling as the stories of the fictional characters.Salt to the Sea is told from the point-of-view of four different teenagers, each with a secret. There is Florian, a disillusioned Prussian art restorer; Joana, a clever and determined Lithuanian nurse; Emelia, a young Polish girl struggling for hope in a world that continues to betray her; and Alfred, a young Nazi sailor desperately seeking recognition.I am going to pause here, because you may be nervous about the same thing I was during Alfred’s first chapter — namely, is this book going to attempt to make me sympathize with a Nazi? The short answer is no. I’m not going to say Alfred’s chapters are easy to read — on the contrary; Alfred is an infuriating character, what you would get if you took Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice, aged him down a bit, and handed him a copy of Mein Kampf. And while Salt to the Sea never tries to make the reader sympathize with Alfred or make excuses for him, some readers may not be able to stomach reading his toxic and hateful inner monologue. Only you can decide whether you can handle reading from the POV of a Nazi (and a sniveling, lazy Nazi at that), and I won’t try to change your mind if you don’t think this is something you can do. All I will say is that Alfred’s chapters do contribute to the narrative as a whole, and neither the stakes nor the tension would be the same without his perspective.However, as much as Alfred is The Worst, the other characters balance the scale. Joana was probably my favorite, a wonderful combination of resourceful, smart, kind, and brave. (Joana also ties into Between Shades of Gray, for those of you who have read both books.) But they all had their moments. Emelia is kind and sweet, but with an underlying determination and selflessness that, on several occasions, took my breath away. And then there is Florian, reserved and secretive, yet motivated by a quiet nobility that kept me rooting for him throughout. I was so very invested in the fates of these three characters that I find myself still daydreaming about them days after finishing.As for the story itself, I was surprised to find that the characters don’t even board the Wilhelm Gustloff until the second half of the book. (Perhaps I would have been more prepared for this had I realized that the Gustloff was only scheduled for a 48-hour trip, not a weeks-long voyage like the Titanic. So it makes sense that most of our time getting to know the characters happens before they reach the ship.)The first half of the book chronicles the long trek of the refugees through the snowy countryside on their way to the port (or, in Alfred’s case, his preparations to sail). The journey to the ship is harrowing, as the characters are constantly trying to avoid both German and Russian soldiers, while also staving off frostbite, dehydration, and malnutrition. On the way, there are several horrifying incidents that show the terrible price of war, and even once they reach the port, the descriptions of the refugees are gutting. Sepetys thankfully never lingers on any single gruesome image for long, but through her careful descriptions and meticulously crafted sentences, you get a thorough mental image of the squalor, desperation, and terror of the characters and their surroundings.Then there is their time on the Gustloff, cut tragically short by the sinking. Since I don’t want to get into spoilers, all I will say is that even though I knew the ship was going to sink, it was still devastating to read about. I was invested so deeply in the characters that watching them go through such an awful experience — no matter their personal outcome — was heartbreaking, and I spent the last chunk of the book reading through tears. It’s one thing to know about a tragic historic event; it’s another thing to experience it. Salt puts the reader right on the deck of the sinking ship, making us feel the panic and terror of the passengers, the biting cold of the water, the hopelessness of the death all around them, and, in spite of that, the steely resolve to keep struggling for survival.As in her previous books, Ruta Sepetys’ prose shines, instantly transporting the reader to the world of her characters. Some authors struggle to convincingly juggle multiple points-of-view, but that is not the case in Salt to the Sea. Each of her four main characters has a distinctive voice and way of thinking which makes them easily distinguishable from one another. Also, the chapters are very short, with most lasting only two or three pages, so you never have to wait long to hear more from your favorite character. The brief chapters make that mental nudge to read “just one more chapter” easy to indulge, making this an incredibly swift read.Salt to the Sea is a beautiful tale of a forgotten tragedy, set during one of the darkest periods of our history. It is respectfully and meticulously researched, but never feels like it’s working too hard to educate; instead, it sweeps the reader up in its vivid characters, gorgeous prose, and compelling storytelling, and if we are more historically knowledgeable by the end, that just feels like a bonus. One may expect a tale like this to leave the reader with a sense of despair, but although the story is full of moments of horror and death and unspeakable devastation, it balances them with moments of friendship, love, sacrifice, heroism, generosity, and kindness. In spite of the bleak time in which it is set, and the disastrous event that serves as its centerpiece, the Salt to the Sea ultimately manages to be hopeful, moving, inspiring, and immensely satisfying.

• A very easy, captivating read. Quick pace with extremely short chapters (2-3 pages long), each almost always ending in a mini cliffhanger that drives you to keep reading breathlessly to the end. Kudos to the author for the incredible pace of this book!• This is a historical-fiction reenactment of an epic tragedy that occurred in the final year of WWII, one that not a lot of people knew about before this book came out. I personally did not know about this tragedy. While the book was light on details, it did spur my interest in the multiple Wikipedia pages on the Wilhelm Gustloff, Gauleiter Erich Koch, and the Amber Room treasure.• The author gave the barest of details to drive the plot fast, which made for fast consumption. Indeed, I think this was one of the few books I’ve ever consumed so quickly. That said, there’s not a lot of character development. There is no omniscient narrator to give broader settings or more details about the political landscape or exposition on other imminent threats outside these four perspectives. There are only the four main characters (all fictional) from which all narration comes. Each character is filled out just enough to drive curiosity about their secrets and what has brought them together at this point in history. However, you can feel those invisible threats in the words and thoughts of these diverse characters. The secrets each character holds close are eventually exposed and are well done by the author.• I see why the book has won so many awards because it compels you to finish it and learn what happened in real life. However, it’s written for a YA (young adult) audience, so the depth of vocabulary and length of descriptions are fairly shallow; it’s straightforward drama with occasional hints at emotional trauma. There are very few (if any?) allegories, and the callbacks/flashbacks are (for the most part) thinly disguised skeletal motifs running through the book: shame, innocence lost, storks, parent-child separations, theft (of life & treasures), and survivor’s guilt. The scenes are brief and focus almost exclusively on the dialogue and interplay between the characters (typical for a YA novel, I suppose). And this is precisely why this format works so well because you experience a sort of hyper-focus, first-hand account common to most war victims amidst their plights. These people are NOT going to be going on and on about clothing, vistas, settings, meals, or guessing at any minor flaws in other characters or themselves. They are only concerned with one thing: survival. For better or worse, these restrictive perspectives keep you in the dark, just as the characters are kept, wondering about their collective fates, and hoping against all odds that they survive.• For me, the ending was too abrupt. I wanted a bit more of a denouement, but I also appreciate what the author did in those sparse final two chapters. By wrapping the tale up very quickly, it keeps the senselessness of the tragedy present in your mind long after you’re done reading it.• Finally, the research notes the author gives at the rear of the book are good to read. The interviews with divers, survivors, museum curators, and others are EXCELLENT—do not skip these! They show how extensive her research was into every aspect of these displaced people’s lives, with the number of affected children running into the hundreds of thousands. It’s a shame the author chose not to include more of the details, particularly in those final sparse chapters. In fact, I was surprised to learn she’d actually walked the same tract and saw the same lagoon as the characters; that’s because those details did not make it into the book to any great extent. However, more space was devoted (and rightfully so) to focus on the passengers of the Wilhelm Gustloff and the harbor of Gotenhafen, gathered from Ms. Sepetys’s personal research; I appreciated that very much. Also, her tale has sparked an intense curiosity in me to know more about these people, this tragedy, and the ending of WWII.

I was intrigued with this book! The author did a great job with each character and how they weaved into each other’s path, a horrible treacherous and dangerous path throughout the book. The plot had me on the edge of my seat and the ending was…you must read it to find out. Let’s just say, the Titanic needs to take a back seat to this book!

A fictional history of a true event, that I don’t want to give away. This book reminds me of the writing style in the Hunger Games. If you like the book thief I think you would like this one too. Pretty action packed so will go quick and keep you on the edge of your seat. Grade level would be equal to high school level.