Awards-

• Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults
  Young Adult Library Services Association
• Audie Award
  Audio Publishers Association

Excerpts-

• From the cover joana
  
  Guilt is a hunter. 
  My conscience mocked me, picking fights like a petulant child.
  It’s all your fault, the voice whispered.
  I quickened my pace and caught up with our small group. The Germans would march us off the field road if they found us. Roads were reserved for the military. Evacuation orders hadn’t been issued and anyone fleeing East Prussia was branded a deserter. But what did that matter? I became a deserter four years ago, when I fled from Lithuania.
  Lithuania.
  I had left in 1941. What was happening at home? Were the dreadful things whispered in the streets true?
  We approached a mound on the side of the road. The small boy in front of me whimpered and pointed. He had joined us two days prior, just wandered out of the forest alone and quietly began following us.
  “Hello, little one. How old are you?” I had asked.
  “Six,” he replied.
  “Who are you traveling with?”
  He paused and dropped his head. “My Omi.”
  I turned toward the woods to see if his grandmother had emerged. “Where is your Omi now?” I asked.
  The wandering boy looked up at me, his pale eyes wide. “She didn’t wake up.”
  So the little boy traveled with us, often drifting just slightly ahead or behind. And now he stood, pointing to a flap of dark wool beneath a meringue of snow.
  I waved the group onward and when everyone advanced I ran to the snow-covered heap. The wind lifted a layer of icy flakes revealing the dead blue face of a woman, probably in her twenties. Her mouth and eyes were hinged open, fixed in fear. I dug through her iced pockets, but they had already been picked. In the lining of her jacket I found her identification papers. I stuffed them in my coat to pass on to the Red Cross and dragged her body off the road and into the field. She was dead, frozen solid, but the thought of tanks rolling over her was more than I could bear.
  I ran back to the road and our group. The wandering boy stood in the center of the path, snow falling all around him.
  “She didn’t wake up either?” he asked quietly.
  I shook my head and took his mittened hand in mine.
  And then we both heard it in the distance.
  Bang.
   
   
  florian
  
  Fate is a hunter.
  Engines buzzed in a swarm above. Der Schwarze Tod, “the Black Death,” they called them. I hid beneath the trees. The planes weren’t visible, but I felt them. Close. Trapped by darkness both ahead and behind, I weighed my options. An explosion detonated and death crept closer, curling around me in fingers of smoke.
  I ran.
  My legs churned, sluggish, disconnected from my racing mind. I willed them to move, but my conscience noosed around my ankles and pulled down hard.
  “You are a talented young man, Florian.” That’s what Mother had said.
  “You are Prussian. Make your own decisions, son,” said my father.
  Would he have approved of my decisions, of the secrets I now carried across my back? Amidst this war between Hitler and Stalin, would Mother still consider me talented, or criminal?
  The Soviets would kill me. But how would they torture me first? The Nazis would kill me, but only if they uncovered the plan. How long would it remain a secret? The questions propelled me forward, whipping through the cold forest, dodging branches. I clutched my side with one hand, my pistol with the other. The pain surged with each breath and step, releasing warm blood out of the angry wound.
  The sound of the engines faded. I had been on the run for days and my mind felt...

About the Author-

• Ruta Sepetys (www.rutasepetys.com) is an internationally acclaimed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction published in over sixty countries and forty languages. Sepetys is considered a "crossover" novelist, as her books are read by both teens and adults worldwide. Her novels Between Shades of Gray, Out of the Easy, and Salt to the Sea have won or been shortlisted for more than forty book prizes, and are included on more than sixty state award lists. Between Shades of Gray was adapted into the film Ashes in the Snow, and her other novels are currently in development for TV and film. Winner of the Carnegie Medal, Ruta is passionate about the power of history and literature to foster global awareness and connectivity. She has presented to NATO, to the European Parliament, in the United States Capitol, and at embassies worldwide. Ruta was born and raised in Michigan and now lives with her family in Nashville, Tennessee. Follow her on Twitter @RutaSepetys and Instagram @RutaSepetysAuthor.

Reviews-

• The points of view of four young people caught in the clash between Germany and Russia during WWII are well realized by four narrators. Lithuanian Joana, Prussian Florian, Polish Emilia, and German Alfred share their secrets in alternating chapters. While the narrators' differing vocal qualities are a plus, they make no attempt at reproducing cultural accents, instead encouraging listeners to imagine the linguistic differences featured in the story. Rather than being a disservice to this powerful novel, the straightforward narration allows the life of each character to unfold without distraction. The heartbreaking climax will leave listeners stunned. An author's note outlining the true story behind the fiction brings everything full circle. S.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
• 

  Starred review from April 25, 2016
  Set in East Prussia during the brutal winter of 1945, these stories of four very different teenagers—three refugees escaping their disparate war-torn homelands, and a Nazi sailor obsessed with Hitler—Intertwine when they all end up on the doomed ship Wilhelm Gustloff. The four narrators (Jorjeana Marie, Will Damron, Cassandra Morris, and Michael Crouch)
  are superbly cast, each taking on the role of a main character with a distinctive voice that perfectly matches his or her role: the young, vulnerable voice of Emilia, a sweet Polish 16-year-old who has suffered too much tragedy and emotional trauma; the warm, caring tones of Joana, a Latvian nurse, who is nurturing and perceptive; the deep, guarded voice of Florian, a mysterious Prussian hiding a secret; and most memorable of all, the high, thin, nasal voice of the Nazi sailor Alfred, dripping with smug arrogance and self-righteousness. The story’s plot and pacing translate beautifully to the audio medium; the intimate interior monologues reveal character development while fast-paced, gripping action scenes of danger and narrow escapes create a sense of suspense. The result is a riveting audiobook that will have listeners on the edge of their seats while also educating them about a little-known but tragic chapter of WWII history. Ages 12–up. A Philomel hardcover.

• 

  Starred review from November 9, 2015
  Sepetys delivers another knockout historical novel, after Between Shades of Gray and Out of the Easy, that offers insight into the ugly realities of WWII and culminates with a forgotten event, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. Set in East Prussia during the brutal winter of 1945, in the waning days of the conflict, and tautly narrated by four strong, distinct voices, the narrative highlights the plight of refugees as Germany tries to evacuate soldiers and civilians: “The brutality was shocking. Disgraceful acts of inhumanity. No one wanted to fall into the hands of the enemy. But it was growing harder to distinguish who the enemy was.” The narrators include Florian, a Prussian boy carrying a secret parcel; traumatized 15-year-old Amelia, a Polish girl without papers who hides a mysterious pregnancy; Joana, a repatriated 21-year-old Lithuanian nurse, who believes she’s a murderer; and Alfred, a German soldier who imagines writing self-important missives to a girl back home. Their stories collide—first as the three refugees travel through the countryside with a larger group, and then as they try to gain passage on Alfred’s ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff, which is doomed to maritime disaster with casualties exceeding those of the Titanic and Lusitania combined. Sepetys excels in shining light on lost chapters of history, and this visceral novel proves a memorable testament to strength and resilience in the face of war and cruelty. Ages 12–up. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House.

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