Salt to the Sea: A Review

I’m at a loss for words to describe this amazing multi-POV historical novel. Masterpiece? Suspenseful? Beautifully well-written? None of them suffice. Ruta Sepetys has won multiple awards for her books which “give voice to underrepresented history and those who experienced it.” She wanted to write about something that happened in WWII that others had forgotten. In her 2016 novel, Salt to the Sea, Sepetys accomplished these goals in a way that leaves me speechless. I listened to the audiobook and was impressed by the four narrators. Jorjeana Marie, Will Damron, Cassandra Morris, and Michael Crouch all performed the book extremely well.

The daughter of a Lithuanian refugee, Ruta’s story revolves around the MV Wilheim Gustloff; a military transport ship used to evacuate refugees and German military personnel toward the end of WWII. Built to carry about 1200 people, the book describes almost 10,000 passengers crammed into every space possible.

This story of four young people joined by their connection to this ship is all fiction. None of them breathed, loved, or died. Yet Sepetys created them with so much authenticity that I am left thinking that each event and backstory was entirely feasible.

REVIEW

The book opens with Florian (also called the “Knight” by Emilia) who won’t be parted from his pack; Joana (who everyone calls the “Nurse”) who has a deep need to heal the wounded; and Emilia (the “Polish Girl”) who is 8 months pregnant–all trying to escape capture by the Russians. It is the dead of winter, there is little food and lots of suspicions. It becomes clear that they–and the other refugees whom they meet–are trying to make it to a port where they expect to find salvation from danger and death. They all yearn to return home where they desperately hope to find living family members.

The fourth narrator is Alfred, a young pro-Nazi sailor on board the ship. His personality and motivations are revealed through the letters he imagines writing to a girlfriend back in Heidelberg. By the end of the book, it is clear that he is totally self-absorbed and that she rejected him because he turned in her Jewish father. As Joana observes, “This is the type of man who looked at a picture on the wall and instead of admiring the photo, looked at his own reflection in the glass.”

Slowly, the author unspools the characters’ backstories. Each young person is burdened with a secret and overwhelming shame for what he or she thinks they did. Each is afraid but is also drawn to the others in the group.

There are several significant secondary characters. The “Shoe Poet” is an old man who had been a shoemaker. His philosophical observations of footwear provide unforgettable insights into the people he meets. “The Wandering Boy” is a child who wanders out of the forest and attaches himself to the group; he becomes the Shoe Poet’s adopted grandson.

Since the chapters are written from the different characters’ points of view, the reader’s understanding of the characters’ motivations, actions, and perceptions of the other characters is shown in intimate detail. Although chapters never overlap, one narrator often picks up immediately where another stops. For example, we discover Joana’s and Florian’s growing feelings for one another in tiny, intimate scenes. As the book progresses towards its traumatic climax, the chapters get shorter reflecting the tension in the book.

Sepetys is a master of writing a book with multiple deep POV. Even the “bangs” of the torpedoes hitting the ship are shown reverberating through each character’s body, soul, and heart. Although the book left me in tears, it is not without hope as Sepetys shows Joana and Florian’s life twenty years later.

END NOTES

There are several pages of end notes which are quite interesting. Don’t miss them.

 

RECCOMENDATION

Although Salt to the Sea is listed as a young adult title, it is a crossover that adults will enjoy too. The publisher recommends it for ages 12 and up which places it in the middle-grade category. Since the book ends with horrific scenes of the ship sinking, I recommend it as a book for mature upper middle-grade readers and older teens.

Congratulations to Rosi Hollinbeck, my California blogging friend, who won Sandy D. Green’s book, THE HAUNTING OF LAKE LUCY.

For more middle-grade book recommendations, please visit Greg Pattridge’s Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday blog.