Smackdown Books 2021

Ordinary Hazards
We Dream of Space
If These Wings Could Fly
We Are Not Free
The King of Jam Sandwiches
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team
The Companion
Punching the Air
Show Me a Sign
Land of the Cranes
Furia
Dragon Hoops
When Stars Are Scattered
Snapdragon
The Radium Girls: The Scary But True Story of the Poison That Made People Glow in the Dark
American as Paneer Pie
Tune It Out
The Gilded Ones
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London
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Saturday, January 20, 2018

Zombie Pick: Ruta Sepetys, Salt to the Sea

Salt to the Sea was not one of the books assigned to my team, but after a disappointing round 1 (both books were sub sub par) and an equally disappointing round two, I decided to read some of the earlier blogs.  I was especially interested in what could have lost in earlier rounds, considering how uninspiring were our second round books.    In morbid curiosity, I read "Salt to Sea".  Having lost to "The Hate You Give" in round one, it must be humble indeed. 

I was stunned by "Salt to the Sea".  This is an historical fiction novel telling the intertwining tales of a group of teenage refugees fleeing east Prussia in WWII.  The story is told through the voices of four main characters all trying to escape the crushing repression of the Soviet - German conflict of 1945.  The story moves swiftly, with a narrative point of view that reveals the desperate time, alliances, self revelations, deceptions and desperate cooperation of characters in the very real oppression of the time.  Although this is fiction, it is historical fiction, and the horrors, the acts of heroism, the violence, the generosity and the acts of betrayal that are inherent in the desperation of war were certainly realities of the time.  The magnitude of the suffering is made clear by the skillful and personal writing of the author, and the memory of the drowned is preserved by Sepetys' graphic style.   As indicated in the credits, the research is extensive, from the numbers of victims, down to the images of child corpses floating upside down due to the disproportionate size of their heads.  The book brings to stark reality, the hell of war.  Sepety's helps us remember those thousands that would otherwise be forgotten in the personal struggles for survival. 

This is a brilliant book, and is my Zombie Pick. 

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