Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

From the first page, Sepetys held me captive with her compelling first-person accounts of  refugees fleeing from Russian forces. It’s the story of four people of different backgrounds forced to depend upon each other to stay alive. Will they get aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff –their hope of deliverance? What happens next is history.

Salt to the Sea was a thrilling read and I recommend it to young adult readers. It’s a bit gruesome, but it gives a good account of life during wartime. It should be followed up with the true account of the Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945.

Sepetys, Ruta. Salt to the Sea. Penguin Books, 2017.