Finding yourself in history--Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys

Perhaps one reason why historical fiction is so compelling to me is that I feel it gives me a glimpse of who I am and where I came from. Most recently this happened when I read Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys.

On my dad's side of the family, I'm a well-rounded mix of European and Slavic ancestry...mostly German, Polish, and Ukrainian. My own great-something grandparents fled Europe in the first half of the twentieth century, but many of their brothers and sisters and cousins were unable to avoid the tumultuous, and often tragic, consequences of both world wars and the Soviet occupation. I'd heard, growing up, of family members who were sent to concentration camps and never seen again... Those who survived passed on stories of how much worse the Soviets were than even the Nazis. But to an American kid growing up in the late twentieth, early twenty-first century, all these accounts seemed distant and vague—just stories, not real people.

Ironically, it was a fictional story that made those people a more real part of my life. Ruta Sepetys' beautiful, beautiful story of a Lithuanian girl's time in a Soviet camp gave me a connection to those relatives that I'd never known. An appreciation for what they suffered. A gratitude for what I have today.

I hope that someday I can do as much for other readers. It's nice to have an example to live up to.

So many people have read this book already that I'm not going to go into more detail about the plot here (you can find a good description at Goodreads), but if you haven't read it, go find it. Right now. 

I defy you to not let your life be changed.