灰影地带

"Between Shades of Gray," a The New York Times best-seller, is the debut* novel of American novelist Ruta Sepetys.

It follows the Stalinist purges* of the latter half of the 20th century and follows the life of Lina as she is deported* from her native Lithuania with her mother and younger brother and the journey they take to a work camp in Siberia. It has been has been translated into more than 27 languages.

Lina is just like any other 15-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys, until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they have known.

Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and filthy* train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets* and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace* in her art, and at great risk, documents events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love and hope that Lina ultimately survives. (SD-Agencies)