Between Shades of Gray
Lina is just like any other fifteen-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’ve known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty 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, meticulously–and at great risk–documenting 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.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Between Shades of Gray
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In June 1941, fifteen-year-old aspiring artist Lina is dragged from her Lithuanian home by Soviet officers and shipped to a Siberian labor camp. She draws what she sees so the world will know it happened.
Between Shades of Gray is fictional but based on real Soviet deportations of Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians to Siberia under Stalin between 1941 and the 1950s. Ruta Sepetys interviewed survivors and their descendants extensively for the novel.
No. The two books share a similar title coincidentally. Between Shades of Gray is a YA historical novel about Stalinist deportations, completely unrelated to E.L. James's romance series.
Yes. A 2018 film adaptation titled Ashes in the Snow was released, starring Bel Powley. The title was changed to avoid confusion with Fifty Shades of Grey.
Between Shades of Gray was written by Ruta Sepetys, published in 1999 by Philomel Books.
Between Shades of Gray is 348 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Between Shades of Gray takes most readers 5 to 8 hours to finish.
Between Shades of Gray is a standalone novel by Ruta Sepetys, not part of a series.
Between Shades of Gray is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.