Book Review - Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

 Ruta is one of those new age authors that I am coming to admire immensely. Her writing style isn’t overly dramatic but rather like a recitation of a person’s diary, factual and precise. While this may not be the ideal style that authors prefer but for Ruta, IT JUST WORKS! Part of the reason it works is because her plots mainly revolve around tragic historical events, and if written in a dramatic way may overtax the sensibilities of the reader. Her writing style helps readers to not become overly attached to the characters in the novel, as these are realistic people with flaws and not some selfless superheroes, but rather glue the readers attention to the course of action taken by them. I also like that Ruta writes about lesser know events, this really helps the reader see history with a different perspective. She is Lithuanian ethnically, and therefore has focused more on the Baltic point of view of the WW2.

Book Cover

Her previous title Between Shades of Grey told the story of Lina, a Lithuanian who survived Siberian Gulag Camps. In this story we meet Joanna who is Lina’s cousin, due to whose escape to Germany Lina’s family was punished. But I couldn’t make out the connection between these two until more than three quarters of the book was finished. This is a good thing because we see the character development of Joanna without being prejudiced against her.

The story is told through four different voices. Joanna, a Lithuanian Nurse who repatriated to East Prussia. Florian, a Prussian who deserts Germany in quest for revenge. Emilia, a Polish teen who is fighting for her survival. And Alfred, a German sailor who is a sociopath.

Operation Hannibal

Some scenes moved me more than the others. The death of Ingrid on the frozen sea, the backstory of Emilia and the chilling details of how she reimagines her rape to be some romance in her head in order to find solace. Florian also gets used by some high ranking people, and when he realises that he is just a pawn to be discarded when in troubled times decides to takes revenge by stealing the amber swan. The attachment of the boy Eli and the shoemaker also depicts how in the time of trouble the you seek your family despite blood relations. The pawning of children for getting passage on the board, shows the cruelty of human nature when it becomes acceptable to trade innocents in order to save your own neck. Alfredo was one hell of a psychopath. When in the end despite the sinking of the ship when he is on the raft with Emilia, he tries to kill her after realising she is Polish, I am deeply aghast. Initially I thought he was just a rejected person who is depressed and so is penning down mental letters to his crush who rejected him. But when I learn that Hannelore his crush is Jewish and he actually wanted her to get persecuted for that I hated him. Emilia’s death is beautiful as she is finally stops her wandering in death and reaches the happiest place for her, her own home. The presence of her mother and her daughter Halinka in her death dream shows that despite all of the difficulties she is finally at peace.

Wilhelm Gustloff  in its days of glory

The depiction of the sinking, reminds me of scenes from the Titanic.  Finally Joanna, Florian, Eli and Halinka are the only surviving members of the group on the ship. They emigrate to America and decide to put the war behind them in order to start a new life as an assorted family. Overall,  a 4.5/5 for me.

Book Review- The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

 

I read Cilka’s Journey before this book because it was written with a female perspective, while this book had a male protagonist. And my intuition proved to be right. I definitely enjoyed Cilka’s story more than Lale, not only because Cilka endured a lot more than Lale did, but also because being a woman I could relate to Cilka’s emotions more. But that does not take away the fact that this was a great novel as well.

Lale like most other persecuted groups in occupied Germany was led to believe that he was going to work for the Germans. The harrowing conditions of the train journey to Auschwitz were only the beginning. Soon he realized than he was in a concentration camp destined for persecution. But he did not lose hope and determined that he would survive and tell his story to the world no matter what. This determination of his did not waver even when he was on doors of death by various means. Cholera, the beating, or even in the end during the death march.  Soon he realised that in order to survive he needed to work a privileged job sans hard labour. Thus he eagerly took up job as the assistant Tattooist  when an Elderly French prisoner offered him. Soon he became the head tattooist and started getting extra rations and began sharing it with people.

Auschwitz Concentration Camp 

Another driving factor to his survival was his love for Gita. Gita wasn’t the most beautiful women, but she had this connection with Lale right from the moment he set eyes on her while tattooing her prisoner number. She worked in the offices and Lale set up occasional meeting with her. The guards who oversaw him as well as her were well bribed for these meetings by him so they didn’t really mind.

 

One incident that really pierced Lale’s heart was when all the Roma people living in his block were killed. The pain of seeing his friends and the children with whom he played everyday being killed, prevented him from making friends inside the camp ever again. He also stuck a bargain with the local Polish father-son duo to exchange valuables for things he needed.

His Romanian Guard was one broken character, who had left his family to join the Nazis and was one hell of a misogynist. I both hated and pitied him cause he was trying to be friends with Lale but his selfish nature prevented him from forming any sort of friendship with anyone. One time Lale was discovered with stolen valuables by the Nazis and beaten almost to death for it, but Cilka with her influence saved him.

The most disturbing character for me was the Doctor. He used to give poisonous toffees to children, selecting them for getting executed, and did horrible experiments on people just for fun. The time when he cut Lale’s assistants balls angered me a lot.

When the Russians were on their way to Auschwitz the male prisoners were moved elsewhere, Lale managed to escape and was then caught by the Russians. There due to his skill with languages he was recruited by them forcibly, to find local  Polish women for having sex with. His job was to go into town each morning and offer women money and jewellery for their services in the evening. Each day he was accompanied by a guard in a jeep, but one day he was sent alone. So he took chance and escaped the Russians. Then he came back home to Czechoslovakia to find that only his sister had survived the ordeal, and she was now married to a Russian man named Sokolov. He then began his search for Gita in Prague.

Gita had been sent on a death march along with other women prisoners from Birkenau. But she along with some polish women managed to escape the Germans and take shelter with local people. She then made her way back to Prague and was waiting for Lale. Their meeting in the end was truly a scene from the movies and really emotional. They got married, started a business, went bankrupt, Lale went to jail, he escaped on bail, they escaped to Australia, started another business there, had a son after trying for years. But in all these years of troubles they never cried to God for help, rather they were just happy to enjoy the life God had granted them.

Gita and Lale with their son

 Overall a 4/5 for me. This was an enjoyable read. But I am still glad I read Cilka’s story first which got me on hook to read this one.

Book Review- The Pilgrimage by Paulo Cohelo

 

On a whim of fancy I bought a paperback copy of this novel, and never have I regretted buying something so much. I kept delaying reading this one, as I wanted a backup plan in case I got fed up of reading eBooks and wasn’t able to buy hard copies due to some reason.. And low and behold that doomsday was the Covid pandemic. This is one of those books which I will never reread again. Even finishing it once was such a struggle for me, and I never managed to read more than 3 chapters of it in a day. Even though the Alchemist leaned a bit towards supernatural, it was a book with a good flow and an engaging story of someone on a treasure hunt. The Pilgrimage shows every sign of being the authors maiden book. The problem with this is that the core elements of this book are extremely unambiguous. Even after reading the whole book I was left questioning what the concept of RAM, or the Tradition truly was! Even though the story gives a good message of focusing on what you want to do with the reward, rather than on getting the reward itself, I was confused what the author did with his reward i.e. the sword in the story. The only things that kept me reading was the journey and the incidents. Being an avid hiker, I have always been fascinated with long distance hiking. And Camino de Santiago in Spain is one of the most famous hikes out there. Every year thousands of pilgrims as well as travelers walk this pathway from France to Spain  in search of something, whether it be moral satisfaction or adventure. The story about how this pilgrimage trail was formed, how its popularity fell in the middle ages and how finally it became important again interested me. The various small incidents in quaint villages with insignificant people fascinated me. It was this wanderlust than kept me going. This is a shorter than average review than I normally write, mostly because I liked so less about this book. Overall a 2.8/5 for me. This is a typical example of a book with excellent background setting and narration, but poor core story.

Route of Camino de Santiago