Daniel is the son of a prominent American oil tycoon, whose family travels to Spain to take part in business deals as an effort to bring economic advantages and tourism to the country. In her newest novel, Sepetys tells a story of life in Madrid, Spain, during the 1950s under the oppressive shadow of General Francisco Franco’s fascist regime. Also, post-World War II, Germans may have been reluctant to pass down stories which made them appear to be victims.Īuthor Ruta Sepetys and her two novels Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea In a 2016 Time interview, Sepetys suggested that perhaps the Nazis minimized news of the sinking, even denying it happened and threatening those who did speak of it, since it represented a heavy loss. It was sunk by a Soviet torpedo, resulting in the loss of almost 10,000 lives. In Salt to the Sea, readers learn the true story of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff in January 1945, a German military transport ship set to take refugees to safety.

Her grandfather was in the Lithuanian army and fled from the Soviet occupation, eventually settling in America. She draws on her own family’s history in Between Shades of Gray, featuring a Lithuanian family forced to enter a Siberian work camp by the Soviets during World War II. Two of her three previous novels explore historical issues related to her own Lithuanian heritage, exploring historical stories previously unknown or little discussed, some even intentionally hidden. This theme is not a new one for Carnegie medal-winning author Ruta Sepetys. In other words: If our knowledge of history is dependent upon those who record it and pass it down, what are the consequences when a number of factors silence that process?

Should they be opened or burnt? Should they be locked away for fifty years and then opened, when the people in them would be dead or, possibly, forgiven? What were the dangers of knowing? Or the dangers of ignoring the past and doing it all again, with different coloured flags or neckerchiefs or helmets?” (from Stasiland by Anna Funder, page 70) This quote in particular stood out as connecting both books: “From 1989 to October 1990 debate raged hot in Germany as to what to do with the Stasi files.

In a truly serendipitous fashion, these books touch on very similar themes: the cost of silence. While I was reading my advance reader copy of The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys, I was also reading Stasiland by Anna Funder, which was recommended to me by a tour guide from a recent trip to Germany.

The fountains of silence ruta sepetys