Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. 400 p. Philomel Books/ Penguin Young Readers, February 2, 2016. 9780399160301.
Last week, I happened to see online that this book was ten years old. This book illuminates an event in history of which I was unaware, a maritime tragedy whose losses actually dwarf the more well-known sinking of the Titanic and Lusitania.
The story switches POV between four young narrators. They are trekking across war torn Europe in 1945 hoping to obtain passage on the Gustav Wilhelm, a pleasure cruiser, now tasked with evacuating refugees. It is a difficult read that is both poignant and heartbreaking as it depicts the horrors of war in unflinching detail.
Salt to the Sea was named to many State Book Awards lists, was a Goodreads Best for 2016, and won the Carnegie Medal. I can't recommend this, or any other book by this author enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment