AUTHOR'S PURPOSE...
Ruta Sepetys is the daughter of a lithuanian refugee. The nations of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia disappeared from maps in 1941, and did not reappear until 1990. As this novel is a story seldom told, Ruta wanted to give a voice to the thousands of people who lost their lives during Stalin's cleansing of the Baltic region. Ruta discovered she only knew part of the story, the happy part, so she decided to meet with her family to gather more information (My Family’s Story) To learn more about her family, Ruta took two research trips to Lithuania while writing the novel Between Shades Of Gray. She interviewed family members, survivors of the deportations, survivors of the gulags, psychologists, historians and government officials. "The experience was transformative" ~Ruta (Ruta Sepetys: seeker of lost stories) Even Though the characters are fictional, their circumstances and many experiences described in the novel were based on actual stories told to Ruta by survivors. Since Ruta is a daughter of a refugee, I can see her relating herself to Lina, who also is a daughter of a courageous family, who were all taken to work camps under Stalin's order. Lina is a very talented teenager and her drawing skills are phenomenal, she fights for her life alongside her mother and younger brother. Since Ruta grew up in a family of artists, readers, and music lovers, I think she wrote lina as a character to have artistic skills for that reason. Ruta followed her calling to speak for all the lithuanians who endured hardships from the years 1941-1952.