This book is about a 15-year-old girl (Lina) and her family who live in Lithuania in 1941, after the Soviet invasion. One night her father does not return home from working at the university; later that evening, Soviet officers burst into the house and take the rest of the family away. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Lina is an accomplished artist, and is determined to document everything that happens to them by drawing. She puts herself at great risk to do so.
I can't say I enjoyed this book, because it is difficult to read about human suffering, and the Soviet work camps were very similar to the Nazi concentration camps. However, it is an engrossing book, and I highly recommend it. It triggered a desire to learn more about the Soviet takeover of the Baltic States during World War II, something I knew little about. 344 pages.
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