On the side of this blog I like to mention what I’m reading… this book however, needs an entire post, an entire page, an entire blog dedicated to itself. If you are unfamiliar with the imprisonment, forced labor, and death of 20 million people during Stalin’s Russian genocide, you are not alone . This tragic piece of history is so undiscussed, that Ruta Sepetys, the author of Between Shades of Gray, didn’t know that members of her own family had been killed, until she took a trip to Lithuania 6 years ago, asked for pictures of her grandfather and the room fell silent.
This is Ruta’s first book, and upon release it spent 4 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller’s List! The book received impressive reviews from Publishers Weekly, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, and more. Last night, our book club had the honor of hosting a meeting with Ruta. It was an absolute privilege to hear her story first hand, ask her as many questions as we wanted, and look through the pictures taken during her years of research. It started at 6:30 and 4 hours later we had to make ourselves come to a close. It was an absolutely incredible night.
Thank you Ruta!!
If you have a few minutes, watch Ruta speak about her experience, the book, and the untold story of so many.
