BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY

A graphic novel treatment of Sepetys’ acclaimed Between Shades of Gray (2011) illuminates the story of a teenage Lithuanian girl’s imprisonment in a Siberian labor camp.

In 1941, 15-year-old Lina is deported, along with her mother and young brother, by the Soviet forces occupying her home country of Lithuania. They endure a grueling six-week train journey, unaware of their destination or the whereabouts of Lina’s father, who disappeared prior to their arrest. Once they reach Siberia, they are sold into a sentence of 25 years of hard labor and forced to sign a document saying that they committed crimes against the Soviet Union. The harsh struggles that Lina and her fellow countrymen face as Soviet prisoners are poignantly depicted in the graphic novel format, which utilizes spare, poetic language to throw into stark relief the images depicting the physical and emotional abuses they are forced to endure. Throughout these hardships, Lina holds onto hope that she and her family will survive to be reunited with her father; in the meantime, she documents her heartbreaking experiences through her drawing. Like Lina’s art, the stirring, watercolorlike illustrations serve as an evocative medium for relaying both the horrors of her experience and the sublime resilience of the human spirit.

A stunningly rendered graphic adaptation that will introduce new readers to this important chapter in history.