Oh. My. Goodness. This book was so amazing. I keep reading new books and every time I’m like, “Wow, this is my new favorite book!” And then I read another and am like, “Nope, this book is better!” Set in Lithuania and Russia in the late 30s early 40s during WWII you read about a story that has not been told enough. While there was war raging in the rest of the world, a whole different war was going on in the Soviet Union. Stalin was rounding up thousands and millions of people and putting them on trains bound for Siberia to meet their fate of sickness, starvation, beatings, and death. Lina and her mother and brother are some of those people. Just an ordinary family who loves and cares for one another, but one night all that changes. I was so moved by this story, it had me giggling with joy, and sobbing on my couch at other parts. I have heard very little from the Lithuanian side of things during that time, and what happened to so many innocent people is truly awful and heart wrenching. This book is very hard to read, so I would not recommend it for people younger than thirteen or even fourteen, but that’s up to you parents to decide. It describes really terrible things such as starvation, sickness, death, and there is one scene that involves sexual abuse by one of the Soviets (Not too terribly descriptive, but still,) and another part that speaks about it. I do think it’s important to learn about these things that happened in history, even when it is incredibly hard. But people need to know, they need to understand grief, sadness, and oppression. This book displays that perfectly and there are little bits of hope embedded into the story line, but I would still HIGHLY recommend this book. Just keep a box of tissues close by. |
