Salt to the Sea

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Trapped between deadly leadership, Emilia, Florian, and Joana make their way to the port, looking for safe passage to Kiel, Germany. Along the way, they add to their entourage of refugees a giant woman, blind girl, shoe poet, and parentless child. Quite the motley and lovable crew.

Salt to the Sea - Penguin Random House

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 Here, Joana reflects that guilt is the price of surviving a tragic event. When a tragic event is over, survivors must deal with their own trauma. But often, they must also deal with guilt about the fact that they survived while others did not.Salt to the Sea takes places in East Prussia in January 1945. Thousands of refugees try to evacuate as World War II draws to a chaotic close. This book was unexpected. It was executed skillfully and I loved how the author recreated the time period so effortlessly. It was clear that Ruta Sepetys had done extensive research on the subject matter and time period, leaving meticulous details throughout the book indicating her extensive knowledge. Ruta Sepetys has a way with words that cannot be matched or duplicated. This book will leave a footprint on my heart forever, for that, I'm sure. Salt to the Sea is a young-adult historical fiction novel published on February 2, 2016. It is Ruta Sepetys’s third novel. Like Sepetys’s other three novels, Salt to the Sea explores the lost and forgotten stories of history. In particular, it focuses on the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff during Operational Hannibal, which took place during WWII and was the largest sea evacuation in modern history. During Operation Hannibal, over two million Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, ethnic Germans, and residents of the East Prussian and Polish corridors were evacuated. The majority of the Gustloff’s passengers were civilians, with an estimated five thousand being children. Also known as “the wandering boy,” Klaus is a six-year-old boy German boy who joins the group of refugees after his grandmother dies. He becomes attached to Heinz, whom he follows around and calls grandfather. Hannelore Jäger Once the youth arrive at the port, they face even more danger and hardships than on their trek there. Everyone wants to escape the Soviet soldiers, but there is not enough room.

Salt to the Sea Book Review | Common Sense Media Salt to the Sea Book Review | Common Sense Media

I moved from body to body, treating blisters, wounds, frostbite. But I had no treatment for what plagued people most the most. Fear." Joana, p. 40 The book was honored as a finalist of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award in 2017 [6] and was listed as a 2017 Best Children's Book of the Year with Outstanding Merit from the Children's Book Committee of Bank Street College of Education. [7] Characters [ edit ] Sepetys’ mission is to bring these quiet but powerful stories to life. As salt is lost in the sea, so are the passengers and their tales on the Gustloff. The doctor aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff. When he learns Joana is a nurse, he asks for her help and secures her a boarding pass. HalinkaFlorian steals the key and map to the Amber Room to take revenge on Dr. Lange. He steals the amber swan to take revenge on Hitler. However, by the end of Salt to the Sea, Florian realizes that he is caught in a vicious cycle of revenge. He realizes that all of his lying and killing was in vain. In part, this is because he believes that both he and the amber swan will end up at the bottom of the Baltic Sea as the Wilhlem Gustloff ship sinks. Moreover, he realizes that responding to lies with more lies isn't good for anyone and only creates more pain. In the end, Florian reflects that revenge is a useless cycle, since it tries to answer pain by inflicting more pain. Through Florian’s character, Sepetys develops the theme of revenge in the novel. After her beautiful debut, Between Shades of Grey, Sepetys has written a more complex book, which is just as heart-breaking. This compelling read deserves a place on your bookshelf beside Elizabeth Wein and Monica Hesse.