Salt to the Sea: Ruta Sepetys
£7.90£8.50 (-7%)
WINNER OF THE CILIP CARNEGIE MEDAL 2017
It’s early 1945 and a group of people trek across Germany, bound together by their desperation to reach the ship that can take them away from the war-ravaged land. Four young people, each haunted by their own dark secret, narrate their unforgettable stories. Fans of The Book Thief or Helen Dunmore’s The Siege will be totally absorbed.
This inspirational novel is based on a true story from the Second World War. When the German ship the Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk in port in early 1945 it had over 9000 civilian refugees, including children, on board. Nearly all were drowned. Ruta Sepetys, acclaimed author of Between Shades of Grey, brilliantly imagines their story.
‘Ruta Sepetys is a master of historical fiction’ Elizabeth Wein, author of CODE NAME VERITY
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | 1st edition (4 Feb. 2016), Penguin |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 400 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 9780141347400 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0141347400 |
| Reading age | 12 – 16 years |
| Dimensions | 21.6 x 13.8 x 0.76 cm |
by Kee Lady
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.
by Mr Sam Creighton
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.
by Lily (sweetlovebooks)
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.
by Aija Z.
Good quality item