Salt to the Sea

Ruta Sepetys devoted three years of research into what still remains the worst maritime disaster in history, the sinking of the German military transport ship the Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945. Some 9,400 lives were lost.

Salt to the Sea picks up on four of those lives, a group of young people desperate to flee Germany by any means, even if this is a dangerously overcrowded vessel in a Baltic port.

Sepetys’ account is personal and unflinching. Fans of The Book Thief or Helen Dunmore's The Siege will be totally absorbed.

Ruta Sepetys is the acclaimed author of Between Shades of Grey.