Ruta sepetys biography of albert einstein
It follows the Stalinist repressions of the midth century and follows the life of a teenage girl Lina as she is deported from her native Lithuania with her mother and younger brother, and the journey they take to a Gulag labor camp in Siberia. Between Shades of Gray was originally intended as a young adult novel , but there have been several adult publications.
In an interview with ThirstforFiction, Ruta Sepetys said that the reason she intended Between Shades of Gray to be a young adult novel was because she met many survivors in Lithuania who were themselves, teenagers, during the deportations and had a greater will to live than many of their adult counterparts at the time. Between Shades of Gray is partly based upon the stories Sepetys heard from survivors of Soviet repressions in the Baltic states during a visit to her relatives in Lithuania.
Ruta sepetys biography of albert einstein: Albert Einstein: The biography -
She interviewed dozens of people during her stay. Lina Vilkas is introduced as a young artist living comfortably in her home in Kaunas, Lithuania , with her loving family. But, on June 14, , Soviet officers the NKVD barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father and forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, along with her mother and her younger brother Jonas, slowly makes her way north to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia.
Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions. Lina befriends many people and works hard alongside her mother and brother for food and survival. Upon arriving at the camp, Lina and her family are forced to live with Ulyushka, a cruel, seemingly heartless woman who initially dislikes the Vilkas family and constantly takes their food and other goods from them as a form of rent.
Elena Vilkas, Lina's mother, is kind and generous to Ulyushka, though Lina and her brother Jonas cannot understand why.