Third of four-part BOB blog: Ruta Sepetys' 2016 novel 'Salt to the Sea' takes us on important journey





Ruta Sepetys, center, is shown with Nan and Joe Hight
 



      BOB NOTE: Author Ruta Sepetys talks passionately about the research that it took to write her next book “Salt to the Sea.” The months of research. The travel to six different countries. The interviews with more than 40 people. All to produce a historical novel that may be one of the best Young Adult novels in 2016: “Salt to the Sea.” Sepetys spoke to a small room of booksellers and Penquin editors during the recent BookExpo America about her historical fiction book. Afterward, the group, which included Joe and Nan Hight, received an advance copy of the book as an exclusive to BEA. Here is their review on the book that is not scheduled to come out until February 2016.

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        Joana. Florian. Emilia. Through these characters, author Ruta Sepetys tells the story of the dramatic evacuation of Germany and parts of Eastern Europe as the Russians advance into Germany in the final days of World War II.  The three describe their journey through detail that makes you shiver as they and others struggle during the winter of 1945 in their quest to reach the Wilhelm Gustloff, a cruise ship that they think will carry them to safety but ultimately could lead to their destruction.

        Alfred. You also read the book through a smug young German preparing the Gustloff for the thousands of people who will crowd onto the ship. Alfred is constantly fantasizing about greater glory in letters that he creates in his mind to a young woman back home. At times, you hate him. At times, you feel sorry for him.

        “Salt to the Sea” is a tragic story, one that may not be known to many who are alive today. It’s one of death, starvation, fear and heroism. It’s one of those who were fleeing from Nazi Germany, not knowing whether their enemies are their own neighbors or soldiers from invading countries.

         It’s a story that everyone should read whether they are young or old.

         As Septys points out, 25,000 people died on ships fleeing Germany, including an estimated 9,000 on the Gustloff, 5,000 of them being children. The ships, including ones carrying Jewish prisoners from concentration camps, were sunk by torpedoes from Russian submarines. The Gustloff alone easily ranks as the deadliest disaster in maritime history, with thousands more dying than the better-known disasters of the Titanic and the Lusitania.

        Why didn’t we know about them? Perhaps it was because we see them all as the dreaded Nazis who were intent on destroying the world as we knew it then. However, Septys gives you a different picture of the people who were actually victims of their own leadership. Even though the four main characters are seriously flawed themselves as well as those they interact with in different scenes, each of them relates to the reader in different and unique ways. In many ways, they become like us but stuck and powerless in a war that was not their choosing.

        “Salt to the Sea” is an important book because it reminds us that the human condition exists in every culture, even those that are much different than our own. It allows us see them as actual people with emotions and feelings rather than numbers who were blindly falling a ruthless dictator.

          Look forward to “Salt to the Sea” when it comes out next year not because it makes you laugh or cry, but because it will change the way you see how war so dramatically affects the people enveloped within it.

         NEXT WEEK: In the fourth and final installment of this blog on BookExpo America, find out what author who had long lines in New York will be coming to Oklahoma and Best of Books for the first time in September!