I just finished this amazing book and my feelings are very raw at the moment. I had never heard of the tragedy of the Wilhelm Gustloff before picking up this book. We have been taught so much of the history of WWII and yet there are still so many untold disasters and it's heartbreaking to think of these people being forgotten. Ruta Sepetys brings the story to life with such a caring and detailed hand that it feels like you are there with the characters actually experiencing the events. It is a real testament of an author's ability when they are able to transcend time and place you right in the midst of the story and break your heart simultaneously.
In this beautiful piece of historical fiction we follow four main characters and rotate reading from each of their points of view. I love that they are all of different nationalities and backgrounds but, due to war are forced together as refugees fighting for their lives. They are all so different and yet have the same will to survive. Florian is a Prussian art thief, Joana is a Lithuanian nurse, Emilia is a pregnant fifteen year old from Poland, and Alfred is a German sailor on the Wilhelm Gustloff. There are several side characters who steal your heart along the way as well like the shoe poet, the wandering boy, and a blind girl named Ingrid, who sees more than those with their sight in tact.
Their tales intertwine and overlap, as do their fates, in such a way that you are emotionally scarred in the most beautiful way by the end. I made it through all the toughest to read parts and the horror of the actual tragedy but, it was the very last chapter when we find out what happened to each of our beloved refugees when the tears came. This is one that will stick with me for a long time to come. If you haven't read this one yet, I highly recommend that you pick it up. You will not regret it.
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