Salt to the Sea Kindle Edition

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.

Ruta Sepetys poignantly portrays the tragedies of WWII through the eyes of four different people. We need to learn from history and not repeat what has happened in the past in the present day. Joana, Florian, and Emilia are quite likable! Also they are courageous! RrrrBut Albert not as much. Because Albert feels inferior, but also he tells himself he is better than everyone that Hitler hates. Unfortunately he espouses all that Hitler does and says.

It is not often that a book as special as this one comes around. Ruta Sepetys’s prose shines in this haunting fictional account of the most tragic maritime disaster in history. Captivating, heart-wrenching with characters that I won’t ever forget, Salt to the Sea will be embedded in my heart for years to come.Salt to the Sea is set during World War II during the Soviet advance in Prussia. Hundreds of thousands of people were being pushed west by the advance, all leading to the port on the edge the Baltic Sea. At the end of their journey, ships waited to help the refugees evacuate. The author notes at the end that nearly 2 million people were evacuated during this time.This book narrated by four teenagers, each of different nationalities and vastly different backgrounds. They had their own histories, secrets, and journeys. Joana, a Lithuanian nurse who desperately wants to reunite with her mother; Florian, a young man with secrets that could threaten his life; Emilia, a young Polish girl harboring her own secret; and Alfred, a sociopathic German sailor who longs for power.This book was beautifully written from start to finish. For me, it was the characterization that stood out. Each of these characters felt like real people. Even the secondary characters—Klaus, Eva, Ingrid, the Shoe Poet—were memorable and compelling.There were so many moments that were so heavy that left me with a bone deep sadness. Many of those moments seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. The characters couldn’t dwell on the horrific things they saw and experienced. They were forced to see, accept, and move on. "I became good at pretending. I became so good that after a while the lines blurred between my truth and fiction. And sometimes when I did really good job at pretending, I even fooled myself."After the characters boarded the Wilhelm Gustloff, any relief I felt was short-lived. A sense of dread was on the horizon and once it arrived, I was panicking. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. I almost broke my cardinal rule and flipped to the final page! GASP! "The woman in the mirror was frightening, especially when I realized that she was me. My face was caked with soot, my eyes ringed with grief from the things they had seen. I had lived for twenty-one years, but the recent months had changed me. I scrubbed at the dried blood and grime beneath my fingernails, thinking of the remorse I would never be able to wash down a sink."Several times, I had to pause and absorb what I was reading because it was so sad. Many scenes were so gruesome and horrifying. At one point, the characters cross paths with a flood of people trying to evacuate. Among them, were a couple of parentless children traveling alone on the back of the family ox. It’s noted that the girl’s pants were too short for her and her little legs were black with frostbite due to the subzero temperatures. After the ship was hit and sinking, mothers were throwing their babies into the lifeboats but missed the target. Mothers and children were trampled in the stairways as people rushed to get to deck.Each chapter switches to a different character. So in the beginning while I was trying to get to know each narrator, it was a bit jarring to be constantly switching point-of-view. Eventually, I settled in and the switching felt seamless, smooth, and natural. I couldn’t put this book down.It’s a sign of a good book when you find yourself thinking about the characters after you turn the last page. The author is done with the characters’ story, but the reader fantasizes about the next unwritten chapter in their lives. I wonder where they are this very moment. Are they happy?The vast amount of research that Sepetys must have had to conduct is astounding and overwhelming just to think about. What an enormous amount of talent she has. I cannot wait to read her other books.Sepetys marries together heart-pounding action and thoughtful characterization, delivering a tragic tale with a heavy dose of hope. It’s not often that I get emotional when reading but I finished this book with tears in my eyes and smile on my face.Audiobook Comments:It’s always scary to listen to a book you loved so much. What if the narrators don’t do the characters justice? What if the delivery was way off-the-mark? My worries were put to rest. The four narrators who portrayed each character did a fantastic job. The narrator for Emilia was particularly wonderful. Emilia was so brave and resilient yet so fragile and I thought that the narrator’s delivery of those things came through. Alfred’s narration was so perfect. His character was borderline insane and he clearly had a inferiority complex. The arrogance that the narrator infused in his narration was perfect.* I received an advanced copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I also received an audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

As a teacher and a parent, I have ample opportunity to observe quite how ruthlessly children can tell it how it is (even my one-year-old son has learnt to roll his eyes at me). However, in my relatively sheltered life, such a tendency is generally played out for comic effect and I have never really pondered how it might take a darker turn in more turbulent times. That is, until I read Ruta Sepetys’ Carnegie Medal winner, Salt to the Sea.In a near-lyrical style, Sepetys tells the tragic tale of four children fleeing Stalin’s Red Army through Nazi territory, hoping to find salvation on-board an evacuation ship. The story is told from the viewpoints of the four main characters: Joanna, Emilia, Florian and Alfred, each haunted by some concoction of fear, fate, shame and guilt from their past. The characters feel painfully real, brought to life with a string of drip-fed details and subtle interactions. It is how these young souls try to come to terms with and explain the atrocities of an adult world that lend the words their power.The personalities are as complex as the dark subject matter demands – for example, Alfred, a devout Nazi is easy to mock and hate. It was not until after finishing the book that I remembered his young age and realised that he is simply a lonely and troubled boy swept up by the wave of hatred that devoured much of Europe at the time. While this might not lead to forgiveness, it must surely lend itself to understanding. Aside from this main cast, the supporting characters are just as involving, with the love that develops between Heinz ‘the shoe poet’ and Klaus ‘the wandering boy’ often providing a brief respite from the lingering sense of doom.The book is split into a series of very short chapters, some stretching to only one line. However, what they lack in length, they each make up for with the strength of their emotional gut-shots, conspiring by the end to leave you feeling pummelled and punch-drunk. The often soft and gentle prose seems almost out of place when describing such bleak scenes and emotions but somehow makes them all the more affecting.The pacing of the book is very impressive. It starts off slowly and I must admit that having read the superb Carnegie-contenders The Bone Sparrow and The Smell of Other People’s Houses, I initially wondered how it had managed to beat them to the prize. However, as the pages flicked over I realised how effective the book was at evoking the tense monotony and boredom of war, the characters are constantly looking over their shoulders but with little to actually do other than trudge onwards and occasionally avert their eyes from the world’s assorted horrors. That being said, when the final action kicks off, the intensity of it is enough to leave you dizzy (I read the final 100 pages in a single stressful sitting).Despite being a ‘children’s book’, I cannot think of another text that so matter-of-factly and brutally lays bare the desperation of war. Some of the scenes involving children at the port left me so overwhelmed with disgust I had to stop reading to compose myself (the only other book ever to make me do that is American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis). This is an important story to tell – based on an unbelievably forgotten history of a real-life event – but it is not an easy one to hear.

Like Ruta Sepetys other novel, Between Shades of Gray, reading Salt to Sea has reminded me, once again, the importance of reading books. Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, books can shine a light on little known but important events from history. Indeed, before reading this book, I was unaware of the many thousands of German civilian refugees from East Prussia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Estonia who fled, at the end of the Second World War, to escape the advancing Soviet Army. Their only escape route was the Baltic Sea and so thousands of people boarded ships on the Baltic coast in an effort to reach safety. One such ship was the Wilhelm Gustloff, which departed only to be sunk by a Soviet submarine with loss of life estimated at around 9,000, in what is considered the biggest maritime disaster ever.Although published for the young adult market, Salt to the Sea can and should be read by all. The story follows the Joana, Florian, Emilia, Alfred Frick, the shoemaker poet and the wandering boy who are trying desperately to escape the advancing Soviet Army. Although it was tough to read at times, Salt to the Sea was thoroughly engaging and I turned the pages at a rapid pace. The ending felt a little compressed and as suggested by others, could have benefited from a closing epilogue but nevertheless, this was overall an excellent read.

This is an astonishing book!I have not read anything by this author before, but I will now seek out her other novels.I found this book to be extraordinary from the first page to the very last.The great skill she shows as a writer by describing these incredible characters whose paths cross and come together in a very specific moment in time. A time of enormous sadness in the midst of a dreadful war and where each of them hold secrets and are running away from something in their own lives too awful to even admit to themselves.Their journeys and their lives, one by one, coincide and their secrets they carry begin to be revealed.Although this is a novel, it is centred around a true disaster which took place towards the end of the war which I knew nothing about. The sinking of the ship , the WILHELM GUSTLOFF by a Russian submarine with 3 torpedoes. The 4th torpedoe failed to activate. With 10.000 people instead of 1200 on board - women, children, wounded soldiers, and staff all fleeing the perilously close Russian advancing army, she was sank and only a 1000 people, approximately , survived.An incredible, haunting tale with many twists and turns.Read it, you won't regret it

Salt to the Sea is a powerful YA historical fiction novel set in Germany and East Prussia towards the end of World War 2. Desperate to flee, people are trekking across Germany to board the Wilhelm Gustloff that will take them away from this war-torn land. We follow four characters, all from different lands, all with secrets, all attempting to board the ship. Based on the true event of the largest maritime disaster in history, this compelling novel will take you away and leave you thinking about it long after you turn the final page.I love Supetys’ other novels, so I had very high expectations for this one, and it did not disappoint. The characters in this book are all so interesting and complex, that even though there are four different perspectives that change very frequently, I never felt the need to check the chapter headings. Even the secondary characters, some of whom did not have proper names, felt so unique and realistic that your heart ached for them as much as it did for the main characters.The pacing for this book was definitely faster than Supetys’ other novels and I found myself flying through this book. You feel the urgency the characters do to board this ship and escape the horrific circumstances they have been dealt. I could easily have read this book in a day had I not had other things get in the way.It is evident that Sepetys did an enormous amount of research for this book which completely paid off. The setting and atmosphere of this book was so bleak, you are instantly transported back to East Prussia in the winter of 1945. You felt the harshness of the winter, the urgency of the people to flee and to seek a better life, the hopelessness of their situation. Throughout the novel you are filled with dread as you are reminded what inspired this book and where it is headed, but that definitely did not take away from the reading experience whatsoever.My favourite thing about Supetys’ novels is that, even with these bleak and horrific circumstances the characters are in, we still see the goodness of humanity and how the human spirit carries on in even the most dire of situations. I cried for half an hour after reading this book and I know it is one that will stay with me.I had absolutely no idea about this tragedy before I read this book and was shocked it was not more well known. Even though the characters in this book are fictional, you are reminded that this was a real event in which 9,000 people, over half of which were children, lost their lives in one night. I urge you all to pick this book up and read it, so at last their story can be heard.

“War is catastrophe. It breaks families in irretrievable pieces.But those who are gone are not necessarily lost.”A tragic loss so beautifully written. Each character represents a different angle of how people’s lives were affected during the war. In this book I’ve seen how war changed people and forced them to adopt a cynical approach towards others. However, it also made me believe in humanity and despite the extreme circumstances, there are still kindness and heroic altruism.Every moment in this book is so brilliant I could not put it down.I would highly recommend this to everyone. It was a meaningful experience.