La historical fiction novel has authors for every age and color, from one of the pioneers such as Robert Graves to today's big bestsellers like Ken follett. And see that there are plot, temporal, style differences between one and the other. How could it be otherwise, of course.
Some historical fiction writers focus on the chronic towards the informative and others inject their intrahistories to present us with plots that soak us in history. In the case of Sepetys Route we began to discover a historical novel writer that contributes its detailed look at events of undoubted human relevance although always silenced by the noisy general evolution of History.
From the anecdotal, in the sea of historical circumstances that come together in what makes up destinies, Sepetys always recovers suggestive aspects, perhaps overlooked by other narrators more focused on the great epics.
Thus Ruta ends up presenting us stories that end up being more epic even from the close feeling. Plots that end up conquering us like the gem just extracted from the vein.
Top 3 recommended novels of Ruta Sepetys
I'm going to betray you
Between the two current blocks that make up Europe and Russia, a large strip of land has historically been subjected to national conflicts of diverse political colours. Comings and goings plagued by obvious or latent conflicts, with tensions from one side and the other of that intermediate strip. A kind of no man's land that everyone wanted to make their own under promises and siren songs. Ideal breeding grounds so that, in a transformative XNUMXth century, a country like Romania would be shaken by movements hidden between authoritarianisms, tensions and various espionage. Serve as an example this meticulous and brilliant button loaded with juicy intra-stories about it.
Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Cristian Florescu, a seventeen-year-old boy, dreams of being a writer, but Romanian citizens are not even free to dream, oppressed by the rules and the force of the regime. In the midst of Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorship, with a country ruled by isolation and fear, the secret police blackmail Cristian into becoming an informant.
He only has two choices: betray everyone and everything he loves or use his position to undermine the most evil dictator in Eastern Europe. Cristian risks everything to expose the truth behind the regime, give his compatriots a voice, and show the world what is happening in his country.
The sources of silence
At the height of collaboration with the United States, Spain receives a multitude of tourists and foreign businessmen who arrive in the country after the recent economic opening. Among them is the young Daniel Matheson, the son of a Texas oil magnate who arrives in Madrid with his parents.
The destiny of Daniel, who aspires to become a photojournalist, intersects with that of Ana, a maid at the Castellana Hilton hotel who comes from a family devastated by the Civil War. Daniel's photographs reveal the dark face of the post-war, awaken uncomfortable questions in him and condition him when it comes to making difficult decisions to protect the people he loves. Ruta Sepetys once again puts the focus on one of the darkest corners of History with this epic novel about fear, identity, loves that are not forgotten and the hidden voice of silence.
Between shades of gray
June 1941, Kaunas, Lithuania. Lina is fifteen years old and is preparing to enter an art school. She has ahead of her everything that summer can offer a girl her age.
But suddenly, one night, her placid life and that of her family is shattered when the Soviet secret police burst into her house, taking her away in her nightgown along with her mother and brother. Her father, a university professor, disappears from that day on. Through a sober and powerful narrative voice, Lina recounts the long and arduous journey they undertake, along with other Lithuanian deportees, to the work camps in Siberia. Her only escape route is a drawing notebook where she captures her experience, with the determination to send messages from her to her father so that she knows that they are still alive.
Also her love for Andrius, a boy she barely knows but whom, as she will soon realize, she does not want to lose, gives her hope to move forward. This is just the beginning of a long journey that Lina and her family will have to overcome using her incredible strength and will to maintain her dignity. But is hope enough to keep them alive?
Other recommended books by Ruta Sepetys
Tears in the sea
January 1945. Four young people. A story full of humanity and hope about the greatest maritime tragedy in history. "A cousin of my father was about to board the Wilhelm Gustloff and asked me to give a voice to those who died believing that their stories had sunk with them."
This is the origin of the novel, in the words of the author. The Wilhelm Gustloff has been forever associated with the greatest maritime tragedy in history. More than 10.000 passengers were traveling on it, including refugees, on-board personnel and German military personnel. It should have led them to freedom and away from the siege eastern Europe was being subjected to during WWII.
But it never reached its destination, as it was the target of several torpedoes launched from a Soviet submarine on January 30, 1945. Passionate about the hidden chapters of history, Ruta Sepetys gives voice on this occasion to four young protagonists whose paths cross when they are evacuated in the Wilhelm Gustloff, like the more than 5.000 children and adolescents who did it to meet their future. They never came, but their stories didn't sink with them.
I have not read the novel but I know the author's style, and it is usually documented.
As you say, in all tragedies there are two faces. And whether we like it or not here there was persecution, jail and death during the first 10 years, of course, more seriously against people linked to the regime... communists, anarchists, trade unionists, socialists, or who did not think according to the regime, perhaps she is focusing on this... I recommend two other novels, Manolita's three weddings, by Almudena Grandes and La voz dormida by Dulce Chacón, apart from that there are some interesting essays you can look for by Paul Preston, to name just one. And if great massacres and absurdities were carried out in Russia, and then others in Chile, Cuba, or Argentina... And others where an absolutist and dictatorial regime reigns. Greetings from concord and may we not have to see this again.
I have only read The Sources of Silence and I did not like it at all.
The vision that a foreigner wants to convey about Spain.
From a Spain that she did not know.
There are overly manipulated truths and lies depending on who is speaking or writing about them.
Spain, like any other country after a war, has its lights and its shadows.
But this lady's point of view is completely far from reality.
I have relatives in Madrid who lived through the post-war period and that fear was not breathed at all in the streets or in the families.
And I'm not exactly talking about millionaires.
He attacks the clergy, the GC as if he had known many.
And unfortunately the story of the stolen or abandoned babies continued well into Democracy.
Corrupt doctors and others abound in all countries.
NOT EXCLUSIVELY IN SPAIN.
But that was neither nor is it usual.
Look for information about the practices of Stalin and the Stasi in the dependent countries of the USSR and the USSR itself.
There are many more lurid questions to tell.