I received an advance reading copy of this tender novel last year and was reminded of it when I saw a full page ad for the book in the New York Times book review a week or two ago. I'm glad I dug it out because it sheds light on a historical event that I don't know much about. Ruta Sepetys wrote the novel out of the experiences of her Lithuanian refugee parents. The novel concerns 15 year old Lina, who is snatched by Soviet secret police from her home in her pajamas one morning along with her mother and brother, and taken by train to a Siberian prison camp. I was unaware the Baltic States lost more than one-third of their populations during the Russian genocide. It is a loss-of-innocence narrative that would be interesting and informative for high school readers.
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