Author: Ruta Sepetys
Pages: 338
Genre: Memoir
Grade: B+
Synopsis: As World War II is breaking out in Eastern Europe, a Lithuanian teenager Lina and her family are torn from their home by the Soviets and sent to work in Siberian prison camps. Just as Hitler is cramming the Jews on train cars and shipping them to concentration camps in Poland, Stalin is doing much of the same to people in his country. This is an incredible story of survival during difficult, cold times. Frankly, it is amazing that anybody lived to tell the tale.
My Review: What I find most amazing about this book and this story, is how little publicity Stalin's genocide has received. Everybody knows about Hitler and the Jews, but Stalin and his brutality has been far less publicized. Estimates of Stalin's brutality range from 15 million deaths to 50 million+, but probably most likely in the 20-30 million range. This book is a tearjerker.
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