Salt to the Sea Book Review

 

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sepetys, R. (2017). Salt to the Sea. Penguin Books. ISBN: 978-1-53796-202-3

2.  PLOT SUMMARY

Four refugees tell their stories of being hunted and the secrets they carry. All are embarking to the Wilhelm Gustloff for the safety of the advancing Russians. Bitter conditions and mistrust add to the urgency of asylum. 

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This historical young adult fiction book is written by Ruta Sepetys. It falls under the category of war and conflict historical fiction. It involves fictional characters but the true events of the near end of WWII including the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. Survival and racism are at the forefront of this novel. This novel follows four characters who are vying for a spot on the ship: Joana, Florian, Emilia, and Alfred. The characters are developed in an extremely believable way. They all narrate their chapters and reveal their innermost thoughts. The theme is survival. One Polish, one Lithuanian, one Prussian, and one German are all looking for the boat to take them to new possibilities. The emotions carried throughout are raw and accurate. The reader is left with an understanding of the plight of refugees and can liken it to what is going on in our world presently. It ends with hope for some of the four who escaped the horrors of Hitler. I had never heard of this maritime disaster which is surprising since it had the highest number of casualties ever on the water. 

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

• Booklist starred, 12/01/15

• Booklist starred, 04/15/16 *

• Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 02/01/16

• Horn Book Guide, 10/01/16

• Horn Book Magazine, 01/01/16

• Horn Book Magazine, 07/01/16 *

• Kirkus Reviews, 11/15/15

• Library Journal starred, 12/01/15

• New York Times, 02/14/16

• Publishers Weekly starred, 11/09/15

• Publishers Weekly starred, 04/25/16 *

• School Library Journal starred, 12/01/15

• School Library Journal starred, 04/01/16 *

• Teacher Librarian, 02/01/17

• Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA), 12/01/15

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• Booklist starred (December 1, 2015 (Vol. 112, No. 7))

• Grades 9-12. Shipwrecks and maritime disasters are of fathomless fascination, with ships such as the Titanic and the Lusitania household names. It’s interesting that the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff during WWII, which led to the largest loss of life on a single ship in history, goes largely unremarked upon—at least in America. The numbers are staggering: far over capacity, the ship was carrying approximately 10,582 passengers when it was struck by Soviet torpedoes, and more than 9,400 of those passengers perished in the ensuing wreck, a death toll that dwarfs the Titanic’s assumed losses (around 1,500). Part of the neglect might be due to timing. The ship was evacuating refugees and German citizens from Gotenhafen, Poland, when it was sunk in the Baltic Sea in the winter of 1945. Astounding losses defined WWII, and this became yet another tragedy buried under the other tragedies—after all, even 9,400 is dwarfed by 60 million. But it was a tragedy, and, like all tragedies, it broke the people involved down to their barest parts. Sepetys has resurrected the story through the eyes of four young characters trying to reach safety as the Russian army advances: Joana, a Lithuanian nurse; Emilia, a pregnant Polish 15-year-old; Florian, a Prussian artist carrying dangerous cargo; and Alfred, a German naval soldier stationed on the Wilhelm Gustloff. Each has been touched by war and is hunted by the past, and, determined to get on a boat in any way possible, hurtling unknowingly toward disaster. With exquisite prose, Sepetys plumbs the depths of her quartet of characters, bringing each to the breaking point and back, shaping a narrative that is as much about the intricacies of human nature as it is about a historical catastrophe. Nominated for the Morris Award for her first novel, Between Shades of Gray (2011), Sepetys returns to those roots with another harrowing, impeccably researched story of hardship and survival in Eastern Europe. When reading a book so likely to end in tears, one inclination is to avoid getting attached to any of the characters, but that’s next to impossible here, so thoroughly does Sepetys mine their inner landscapes. That doesn’t mean they are all likable—as it breeds heroes, so, too, does calamity breed cowards and opportunists—but it does make it difficult to think of them as anything other than real people. After all, the ship was very real. It does the people aboard a disservice not to reflect them the best one can. In many ways, the greatest punishment—and the greatest of all tragedies—is to be forgotten. 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.

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• 5. CONNECTIONS

Related books:

Sepetys, R. (2011). Between shades of gray. Speak. ISBN: 978-0-14-242059-1

Sepetys, R. (2014). Out of the easy. Speak. ISBN: 978-1-48980-817-2

Activities:

Students create a newspaper front page article about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff

Students create a poem from the point of view of one of the settings of the story.