338 pages
*Not to be confused with that other book (although apparently it often has been) which also contains the phrase "shades of gray" in its title and is shrink-wrapped at the bookstore! That would be a rude awakening either way I'm sure. (I won't be reading that other book.)
"Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brother's life was worth a pocket watch.
In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina is preparing for art school, first dates, and all that summer has to offer. But one night, the Soviet secret police barge into her home, deporting her along with her mother and younger brother. They are being sent to Siberia. Lina's father has been separated from the family and sentenced to death in a prison camp. All is lost.
Lina fights for her life, fearless, vowing that if she survives she will honor her family, and the thousands like hers, by documenting their experience in art and writing. She risks everything to use her art as messages, hoping they will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive.
It is a long and harrowing journey, and it is only their incredible strength, love, and hope that pull Lina and her family through each day. But will love be enough to keep them alive?" -Dust Jacket
I have several books in my library that I haven't read yet because it just doesn't feel like the right time. That was the case with this one for several months. Being about WWII, I was afraid that it would be incredibly sad and I wasn't ready for a good cry yet. Then it snowed and got really cold and all of a sudden it felt like the right time. At times it was incredibly sad, but with so many books like this, it was also incredibly uplifting. I think more books are written about the treatment of the Jews during WWII than about what Stalin did to millions of people and although this is a fictional story it is based on real events.
I have wondered before if I would stay true to myself if put in circumstances as horrific as these. Would I be the one to complain that all is lost and feel hopeless? Would I become selfish and lose my humanity in order to stay alive? Would I give up and want to die? Or would I try to help and lift those around me? Would I grasp on to the smallest rays of hope to keep me going? I don't know. I hope it would be the latter. Lina's mother is an example of the latter. She maintains her dignity and continues to look after those around her. She saves her family and gives them the courage to survive.
In this book there is love, laughter, horror, misery, more misery, death and hope. Between the shades of gray there are rays of light. There are characters that you become attached to and those you feel sorry for, the NKVD officer Kretzsky in particular. Christmas and Lina's birthday are particularly sweet. You can be grateful even when you have nothing. It's incredible to think that this fictional family suffered all they did for more than a decade and at the end of it they weren't allowed to talk about what happened to them because they were viewed as criminals. Despite being released, they lived with the fear of being imprisoned, or worse, if they said what really happened. Lina's art stands as the only witness to what she went through.
This is a moving, well-written story. I'd definitely recommend it.
{SPOILER ALERT}
There is one loose end in this story that isn't tied up and I wish it would have been, although I don't think that would have been as realistic.
You never find out if Lina's father was really killed or not. Lina and her mother are told that he was but it is never confirmed. I know that so many people who were sent to prison camps during the war never found their loved ones again or knew what really happened to them. I would hope that if Lina's father had survived that they would have found each other. I rather doubt that that part of the story had a happily ever after.
I'm so glad that Lina and Andrius found each other! That loose end would have driven me crazy. I've always said I'm a sucker for love and I'm glad that theirs survived. Andrius was a favorite.
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