Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Salt to the Sea
by Ruta Sepetys

Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets.
Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies…and war.
As thousands of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom.
Yet not all promises can be kept.
Inspired by the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, bestselling and award-winning author Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray) lifts the veil on a shockingly little-known casualty of World War II. An illuminating and life-affirming tale of heart and hope.

Books with WWII setting always catch my eye, and Salt to the Sea is no exception. Set in Poland, 1945, the book has a cast of ragtag characters thrown together by necessity, all of them trying to board the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises passage to a better future.

The plot doesn’t lull, even though the characters don’t board the ship until, like 2/3 way into the book. Before they arrived at the docks, the refugee band must travel through some trials and danger-ridden lands. Moreover, many of the members have dangerous identities they must hide.

Characters 

Speaking of which, the characters are one of the best aspects of this book. With 4 main characters each getting a POV, we get to peek inside their perspectives, goals, and dreams. I especially love how Sepetys features Lithuanians and other diverse characters, as we have so few of those in Holocaust books, because it’s significant we realize the sufferings of war victims other than Jews.

• Joanna is a Lithuanian nurse who fled her homeland from Stalin to the realms of Hitler where she would be granted diplomatic immunity (? Or something of the like since her mother was German). She joined the group of refugees and held it together with her medical abilities and compassionate spirit.

“Your daughter, your sister. She is salt to the sea,” 

• Florian is a Prussian art forger artist/soldier who has a revenge agenda. He possess something that will destroy his ex-mentor. His personality is a bit bland, and I was surprised when he and Joanna struck it off. I’m just glad their romance thing didn’t bog down the plot. 

• Emilia is a tragic little figure with a terrible secret; her brokenness and quiet despair rends my heart. 

“Per aspera ad astra, Papa,' I whispered. Through hardship to the stars.”

• Alfred is the brainwashed Hitler youth who’s a seaman on the Wilhelm Gustloff. He’s that one in a multi-POVs story, the one I abhor and tries to skip. On one hand I pity him for his complete devotion and desperate need to prove himself, and on the other hand I detest him and what he stands for. His letters to his sweetheart is filled with pathetic egotism and illusions of grandeur. If the author is trying to get us into the head of an Aryan racist sociopath, congrats, she did it. 

“His smugness was annoying. This was the type of man who looked at a picture on the wall and instead of admiring the photo, looked at his own reflection in the glass.”

Side characters:

The side characters are equally amazing and complements the book so well. There’s a shoe poet who can see stories from your shoes, a little boy who lost his mother, a blind girl, and a giant woman with a cart of relics from a past life.

Setting

Have I talked about how much I loved the setting? I can almost feel the coldness of the snow and the mud splashing around and the salt of the sea. The setting of the latter half of the book also draws me in, because a doomed ship is such a dramatic, claustrophobic setting! The Wilhelm Gustloff was a German military ship that was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine while carrying 10,582 persons: civilians, officers, nurses, wounded soldiers, and about 4000 children (the numbers may not be accurate since some unregistered passengers swam and sneaked on board), with about 9,400 perishing in the freezing Baltic Sea. Knowing this background makes the story much more poignant when you read the passengers’ hopes and plans for the future. The fatalities number is several times higher than that of the Titanic or the Lusitania, but very few mention the Wilhelm Gustloff, so I truly appreciate the author for setting her story in this disastrous time and bringing more light to the subject. 

“Ships capacity: 1,463
Passengers on board: 10,573
Lifeboats: 22
But then I remembered.
Ten of the lifeboats were missing”

Pacing

The pacing is very fast, with short chapters only 2-3 pages long. I appreciate the pacing because it does not feel like the author is trying to show off all the thorough research she did. That’s one huge trap historical fiction authors fall into, and I’m glad Sepetys stepped clear of that. Instead, the author had my heart all clenched up with alarm as the plot unfolds: will the Nazis discover their true identities, will they fall into the river when the ice doesn't hold, will they board the ship in time... The fast pacing also conveyed a sense of doom and dread as the characters obliviously speed towards their ruin. 

“The Wilhelm Gustloff was pregnant with lost souls conceived of war. They would crowd into her belly and she would give birth to their freedom.” 

Final Thoughts

Salt to the Sea is a poetic and moving piece that squeezes my heart when I read it. It combines all my favorite elements: colorful characters, fascinating historical background, and straightforward pacing. The historical significance of portraying diverse characters is another plus. In short, if you enjoy WWII themed books like Code Name Verity or Wolf by Wolf, give Salt to the Sea a try.