Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (Epub)

Description

Winter 1945. WWII. Four refugees. Four stories.

Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies, war. As thousands desperately flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom. But not all promises can be kept . . .

User’s Reviews

Review Praise for Salt to the Sea: A #1 New York Times Bestseller An International Bestseller Winner of the Carnegie Medal Featured on NPR’s Morning Edition “Ruta Sepetys acts as champion of the interstitial people so often ignored — whole populations lost in the cracks of history.”—The New York Times “Superlative…masterfully crafted…[a] powerful work of historical fiction.”—The Wall Street Journal [Sepetys is] a master of YA fiction…she once again anchors a panoramic view of epic tragedy in perspectives that feel deeply textured and immediate.”—Entertainment Weekly “[A] riveting novel . . . Sepetys skillfully weaves history into her story, here grounding her nuanced characters in the events of winter 1945. Vivid details punctuate the spare prose.”—The Washington Post “[H]aunting, heartbreaking, hopeful and altogether gorgeous…one of the best young-adult novels to appear in a very long time.”—Salt Lake Tribune “Ruta Sepetys is a master of historical fiction. In Salt to the Sea the hard truths of her herculean research are tempered with effortless, intimate storytelling, as her warm and human characters breathe new life into one of the world’s most terrible and neglected tragedies.” —Elizabeth Wein, New York Times bestselling author of Printz Award Honor Book Code Name Verity “A rich, page-turning story that brings to vivid life a terrifying—and little-known—moment in World War II history.” —Steve Sheinkin, author of Newbery Honor and National Book Award finalist Bomb “Brutal. Beautiful. Honest.” —Sabaa Tahir, New York Times bestselling author of An Ember in the Ashes “Ruta Sepetys is more than just an author — she’s history’s answer to CSI.”—Mashable “[A] stunning historical novel.”—Hypable * “Sepetys excels in shining light on lost chapters of history, and this visceral novel proves a memorable testament to strength and resilience in the face of war and cruelty.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review * “This haunting gem of a novel begs to be remembered, and in turn, it tries to remember the thousands of real people its fictional characters represent. What it asks of us is that their memories, and their stories, not be abandoned to the sea.” —Booklist, starred review * “Artfully told and sensitively crafted, Sepetys’s exploration of this little-known piece of history will leave readers weeping.” —SLJ, starred review “The inevitability of the ending (including the loss of several characters) doesn’t change its poignancy, and the short chapters and slowly revealed back stories for each character guarantee the pages keep turning. Heartbreaking, historical, and a little bit hopeful.” —Kirkus Reviews “Intimate, extraordinary, artfully crafted…brilliant.”—Shelf Awareness “This book includes all the reasons why teens read: for knowledge, for romance, for amazing and irritating characters. This novel will break readers’ hearts and then put them back together a little more whole.” —VOYA “Sepetys’s…scene-setting is impeccable; the penetrating cold of the journey is palpable, and she excels at conveying the scope of the losses while giving them a human face….[T]his elegiac tale succeeds with impressive research, affecting characters, and keen, often unsettling insights into humans’ counterposed tendencies toward evil and nobility. Readers will be left to discuss which impulse triumphs here.” —The Horn Book

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ Salt to the Sea tells of four passengers on the ill-fated Wilhelm Gusloff, a luxury cruise liner turned into supply and medical ship, last voyage on the Baltic Sea in 1945. The Wilhelm Gustloff is a tragedy greater than the Titanic. About 9K+ died. To tell this story, Ruta Sepetys chose a really unique storytelling mechanism. Each chapter is short and builds off of one another because each chapter belongs to a voice of each character. What I found really intriguing was that one character would describe something or have a conversation with another character, but a look or a conversation would build off the next character in the next chapter. It took some getting used to, but after a while, this technique really helped to drive the story forward.Winter of 1945. Prussia. Refugees and German civilians are fleeing because the Red Army is making a strong advance against Germany. It is clear that Germany has lost the war at this point, but is still hanging on. We all know why. Passage to safety is via the Baltic to West Germany. Everyone knows this and this is how 3 of our 4 characters meet, on this trek to safety. Each character holds a dark secret as they make their way to safe passage. The atrocities and mysteries of WWII follow each of these characters in one way or another.Sepetys really took the time set up each character background and their motivations, but toward the end the book, she appears to run out of steam. Another issue is that one character really could have used more development and background. The first half of the book, up to the embarkment on the Wilhelm Gustloff is actually the best part of the story. However, the secrets of each character are revealed mostly while on the ship, and since we already know what is going to happen and how soon, there is not enough time for that development and it feels rushed. We know from watching Titanic that major plot developments can occur during the sinking of a ship, but that does not really happen here. Resolution, if any, feels incomplete. While the final few pages (an epilogue?) were just mind boggling and made absolutely no sense.I would recommend this book. I studied WWII a lot in undergrad, and I find myself drawn to stories about or with women during WWII (no matter the country). So, if WWII is your thing, then despite its flaws, I found myself not wanting to put it down. The short chapters are perfect for working moms on the go, like myself, if you just so happen to find yourself with a pot of tea, five minutes, and in need of good book.

⭐ My daughter was given this as required 8th grade summer reading. I liked the premise of the story but found the quick jumping between characters (that are slow to develop) distracting and hard to follow especially in the beginning. The biggest issue that I have with the book is more with the extreme graphic nature of the storytelling – from nailing mothers to barn doors, to horrifying rape of a young girl, to horses and people dead under ice, to children being thrown from a sinking ship and missing life boats. I know that all of this was part of the war – but there are reasons that many people that saw this and returned home were reluctant to speak of what they had seen and been through. Please if your teenager or young adult is assigned this be sure to talk to them about the subject matter.

⭐ Ugh, where do I begin?First, reading this book was a waste of my precious reading time. Second, this novel was a waste of a story idea. Third, Ruta Sepetys’ writing style is juvenile, trite, and lacks complexity.I’m always down for a WWII historical fiction, but reading ‘Salt to the sea’ simply showed me that it was yet just another dime-a-dozen historical fiction written to be unoriginal fluff about a serious World War II subject matter. This book is more a teen romance, than it is an engrossing story of what is considered to be the worst maritime disaster of modern history – the sinking of the ship, MV Wilhelm Gustloff.Like the Baltic Sea that the real ship sank into, this story is cold, lacks depth, and is teeming with muck. All you’ll find with Sepetys’ storytelling is a teenage drama with an over-simplified plot, plus a useless romance trope added for good measure. As you would expect from a poorly written book, the less than one-dimensional characters exhibit stupid bravado or mind-numbing naivete, while the author fails at carving out any semblance of complexity for such a serious subject.My verdict? Skip it! Instead, google and read articles chronicling the real ship’s history and it’s tragic record setting disaster, which is what I did after finishing it. In the hands of a more skilled writer, this story would have deservedly been given a better narrative than was done here. 1 star out of 5.

⭐ Hitler’s voice was being broadcast on shipboard radios on the anniversary of his appointment as chancellor of Germany, on a ship named after a prominent Nazi, Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship with the capacity of 1,463 but stuffed instead with 10,573 sailors, soldiers and predominately with women and children. But no one on board was listening to Hitler when the ship was struck by three missiles from a submarine and went down in only fifty minutes, with only 12 lifeboats on board. In the bitter cold of the Baltic Sea in January. Many of those fleeing the Russian Army had crossed ice while being fired upon by Russian planes in their effort to get to the ship in the first place, and most saw it as their last hope of escaping those Russians who would be determined to make the Germans pay for the atrocities of the past few years. In 1945 25,000 people lost their lives in the Baltic Sea, over 9,000 of them in this one ship catastrophe alone. Yet, we never hear about this shipwreck that was so much larger than the Titanic. This novel was a small glimpse into the stories of the many women and children. It was told in very short chapters, some only a sentence or paragraph, most only a page or two. It was told in four voices and that helped keep the pace fast, but the emotional involvement a bit removed. I came to care what was happening, but never really to feel involved in it. It did raise my curiosity and send me to google more about the ship, the region and the entire operation Hannibal which I had never heard of before. It was compelling to read and deeply researched and interesting in many ways.

⭐ Salt to the Sea is a book about a group of refugees fleeing from the Eastern Front away from the Soviet Army. There are four main characters. Florian a Prussian art restoration apprentice who has a secret. Joana, a Lithuanian nursing student who is haunted by past choices. Emilia, a Polish girl who has had everything in her life, ripped away by the war. And Alfred who is a young German Sailor. The book consists of alternating first-person chapters. It is very easy to differentiate who is narrating the story as they all have distinct voices. Not an easy feat.I have enjoyed all of Ruta Sepetys’ novels. They are not, however, as intensely character based as I like. Salt to the Sea’s plot rushes forward at such a pace that the reader doesn’t get a chance to slow down and get to know the characters. The chapters are very short, and I found myself barreling through them to see what would happen. The speed is entirely realistic, but it leads to me loving the book but muddling up the characters. Sepetys takes no time with the frills of description. It does not matter that you don’t know what a WWII era German Sailor’s uniform looks like because things are happening. I did do a fair bit of googling while reading this book but I like to know exact details and understand the background from more than just context.This is not to say that the book does not show us the human or that it does not have an impact. It isn’t just the obvious parts that can get to but the everyday. For example, there was a scene with a stuffed rabbit that completely caught me off guard and had me choking up. The book packs an emotional punch, and I found myself crying over it on at least three separate occasions. More if you count the afterward and acknowledgments. It is just a case of the plot happening to the characters rather than the characters happening to the plot. Hopefully, that made some sense…There never seems to be an end to World War II stories. Whenever you think that you are familiar with almost all of it, a story comes along to show you a narrative about something that you have never even heard about. It is why I am endlessly attracted to books set in this period. I vaguely knew that there had been refugees fleeing the Soviet Army, but I had never put together the scope of the situation in my head.I find it fascinating how a book set more than 70 years ago is so topical. At the moment the refugee crisis in the world is larger than in any other time since the end of WWII. Salt to the Sea shows us how human each of those numbers is, the pain of not having a home to go back to, and the infinite ways that war can steal everything from you. This book needs to be widely read. I am going to be sending this book to several people that I know.

⭐ Have you ever just started reading a book and found it hard to find a place to stop it at before going to bed? That was me with this book. I admit I am not a big fan of chapter characters, but after awhile, I found it helped me to keep up with all that was going on – and believe me there was a LOT going on. This book is told from the perspective of 4 character – although I coulda’ done without the Nazi Alfred……a sicko from page one. But, hey, I digress. I saw one review that stated ‘The greatest ship wreck you never heard of’ at the close of WWII. This is so true. It is the journey of these 4 different people somehow thrown together trying to escape to a port with thousands of others trying to get the ships leaving the harbor away from war torn Europe. It was called Operation Hannibal – when Germany evacuated soldiers and citizens ahead of the Red Army. Unbeknownst to the escapees, the waters are inhabited by German u-boats just waiting for their chance at one last sinking or sinkings. That the ships were loaded to overfull capacity only made matters worse – it didn’t take long for any ship to sink and with not enough lifeboats and rafts to begin with, it spells danger and catastrophe. The Wilhelm Gusthaf was such a ship and I, for one, had never heard about its sinking or the thousands of lives lost. It was very well written and one that I will probably read again.

⭐ This is one of those books that surpasses expectations. As Historical Fiction, I expected another World War II story to round out many of the facts I already knew. But this story centers on two things: the reasons why four young people from four distinctly different backgrounds have become refugees from the atrocities of the advancing Russian army and around the ship that will hopefully be their salvation – the Wilhelm Gustloff.Four young people – Joanna from Lithuania, Florian from East Prussia, Emilia from Poland, and Alfred from Germany. The four come together as they travel overland towards the port city of Gotenhafen. Neither is in the best of health and their trek is long and arduous. Each traveler hides a secret from the others that could put them in extreme danger. When at last they arrive in Gotenhafen, they must band together in order to gain a berth on the ship Wilhelf Gustloff. The Germans are evacuating ahead of the Russian army’s arrival and while those from the upper rungs of society are given cabins aboard the ship that hold two thousand, another eight thousand injured soldiers and refugees are taken aboard. This overload strains the ship but those in charge reason that their destination is only forty-eight hours away and the trip should not be too much of a hardship. No one takes into account the Russian submarines lurking in the Baltic Sea and when the ship meets its watery grave only about one-thousand passengers survive. Are the four young people among them?I found this story riveting as I have always been an avid student of the Titanic disaster and thought this would be a bit like that. But the reality of what it must have been like on that ship makes the Titanic seem like a rowboat on a calm lake. The loss of life is staggering and yet there is so little known about this ship and the tragedy it is linked to. Like the Titanic story, it is a tale of love, loss, hope, and despair. You won’t be disappointed.

⭐ I was drawn to this book because of the interesting title, “Salt to the Sea”. A poetic phrase. I was not disappointed. The author uses language beautifully. Let me stress that. Gorgeous prose. Gorgeous. I was pleased, pleased, pleased to discover this particular author. Another Ursula LeGuin? From the first page I knew I was not only in the hands of a real craftsman but also an author with je ne sais quoi. Sepetys is an author who handles language as fluidly and masterfully as a five star chef creating brioche from scratch. Or, maybe rose petal jelly? Delicious.The structure was a little jarring, but once I got used to it, I decided it gave the whole work a theatrical flavor, as if I were reading a play. I also appreciated the maps, the bibliography at the end and the list of interviews she did with real eyewitnesses.The subject matter is a bit intense for YA (and thus must be handled with extra sensitivity) and Sepetys did not hold back in her descriptions of the horrors of war. Was it sensitively done? Yes. Did the blunt violence add to the story? Not sure. Did it reveal the fragility of the human condition? Yes. Did the work overall encourage compassion, bravery, love of fellow man? Not on the scale of Dostoyevsky or Hugo – but the author is young still, and I believe she has great ability to inspire empathy.I am withholding one star for the following reasons:It could have been more tightly edited – especially in the first ten pages when the characters were being introduced. Having the same moments repeated from the viewpoints of each character was boring especially since the new information was intuitive for the reader to begin with. I felt like I was being hit over the head with the author’s hammer. I wanted to scream “Get on with it!” Tell me the story.The character of Alfred was also heavy handed and stereotypical – flat and one-dimensional. Nothing there to keep the reader guessing.The ending was wobbly and the final impact was lost in the disjointed story line. Readers want the resolving clinch. They don’t want the beginning of another story, explanations, another character introduced, more information to follow… they want a soppy, wet, unmistakable clinch – the forever and ever kind. The kind that leaves an afterglow.Other than that… bellissimo! I so, so appreciated this work. I’m a tough grader and I rarely write reviews. This is one more gauge of Sepetys’ ability to inspire.I look forward to watching Sepetys add depth and finesse to her immense potential. I can’t wait for the next thing she writes!

⭐ I wasn’t aware that this book was marketed to the young adult population. And now that I have finished it, I’m still not sure. In any event I have some conflicting thoughts about this book. Several people meet towards the end of WWII and make their way to a port where they will try to board a boat. This is one way of escaping the Russians as they have invaded Germany and are known to be brutal. The story is told by four people as they make the trek and a German soldier dedicated to Hitler. What happens to them as they were on the crowded boat was horrific. But I found by the middle of the book, I was bored and almost didn’t continue reading the book. I am glad I did since the end tied up some of the stories. And while others have complained about not understanding the ending or liking it. I thought it was poignant and wonderful. I have read many books about WWIZi and thought this was a particularly harrowing book, I am glad I persevered to the end.

⭐ When I bought this as a Kindle daily special I didn’t notice that it was a young adult book or I wouldn’t have purchased it. I did see that before I started actually reading it and I was prepared to be disappointed, but it was surprisingly good and worth reading for the history of the evacuation and ship disaster. I took off one star because the ending was too neatly romantic, and I would have liked to know a little more historical facts. Did the passengers pay, providing the incentive for the gross overloading, and was there a hearing about the disaster. Since the Amber Room is not known to have been recovered, it would have been a better story to not have the means of recovery possible. Either kill the only person who knew the location, or have the map and key lost. To have Florian risk so much to keep the Nazi’s from stealing the Amber Room and its contents, and then to have him instruct that the backpack be buried is inconsistent.

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