📖 Salt to the Sea

"Guilt is a hunter." It is the winter of 1945, during the second World War. Sepetys crafts four unique characters who come from different homelands. Joana is a Lithuanian nurse, Florian is a Prussian soldier attempting to steal treasure from the Nazis, Emilia is a Polish girl who is almost pregnant, and Albert is a delusional Nazi peon, or forced laborer. What they have in common is a fear of being haunted by tragedies and lies. As they all flock for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship of hopes and freedom, their seemingly different paths converge. However, tragedy strikes on January 30, 1945, when the German cruise liner that ferries wartime refugees from the Red Army gets sunk by a Soviet submarine. Now, the serious question arises: can a shared humanity override the paralyzing fear and betrayal of war? Winning multiple awards, such as the Carnegie Medal, and praising reviews from the Wall Street Journal, the author Sepetys truly has a magical way with words. The way she crafts the length of the sentences along with the mood of the story truly makes her writing beautiful and brutal. In addition, I particularly enjoyed the parallelism throughout the story, especially the relationship between the characters as they were all hunted by guild, fate, shame, or fear. Later in the story, each character experienced negative emotions that would arise and bottle them up, which created a realistically frustrating effect. The way Sepetys recreated the time period and subject matter with meticulous detail along with beautifully crafted characters truly left a footprint on my heart that will last forever. Also, I found that it was surprising that this book was inspired by the biggest maritime tragedy ever, and it wasn't the Titanic or Lusitania, it was actually the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. It was a German transport ship that carried over 10,000 German military and refugees, but there were almost 9000 deaths when missiles from a Russian submarine hit the ship from the Baltic Sea in January of 1945. One of my favorite quotes from the book is "my war had been so long, my winters so cold. But I had finally made it home." Something about the cold and tense atmosphere that had been slowly dissolved through hope and unity built slowly throughout the book truly resonated with me. It brought a sense of peace and love of humanity to my heart as the character's treacherous journey had finally come to a calming end. This definitely struck me in a way that was different from other books and is why I will remember this book forever. Finally, the strong emphasis on themes of heroism, honor, and family kept me glued to the book. The short yet powerful chapters had me very intrigued as I kept on thinking "only one more chapter before I go to bed…" and before I knew it, I had stayed up the whole night.

"内疚是猎手。" 故事背景设定在1945年冬,即第二次世界大战期间。塞佩蒂斯(Sepetys)塑造了四位来自不同国度的独特角色:乔安娜(Joana)是一位立陶宛护士;弗洛里安(Florian)是一名试图从纳粹手中窃取宝藏的普鲁士士兵;艾米莉亚(Emilia)是一位身怀六甲的波兰少女;阿尔伯特(Albert)则是一个活在妄想中的纳粹底层人员(或称强迫劳工)。他们共同的恐惧,是担心被过去的悲剧与谎言所纠缠。当他们纷纷涌向"威廉·古斯特洛夫号"(Wilhelm Gustloff)——一艘承载着希望与自由的船只——时,他们原本看似迥异的人生轨迹交汇在了一起。然而,悲剧在1945年1月30日降临:这艘负责将战时难民从红军推进中撤离的德国邮轮,被一艘苏联潜艇击沉。此时,一个严峻的问题摆在面前:人性中的共通情感,能否战胜战争带来的那种令人窒息的恐惧与背叛? 作者塞佩蒂斯不仅荣获了卡内基奖(Carnegie Medal)等多项殊荣,更收获了《华尔街日报》等媒体的高度赞誉;她确实拥有驾驭文字的魔力。她巧妙地将句式长短与故事氛围相结合,使笔下的文字既优美动人,又残酷震撼。 此外,我特别欣赏贯穿全书的平行叙事手法,尤其是几位角色之间那种微妙的联系——他们各自都深受内疚、命运、羞耻或恐惧的追逐与折磨。随着故事推进,每个角色都经历了负面情绪的滋生与压抑,这种处理方式营造出一种真实而令人压抑的挫败感。塞佩蒂斯以细腻的笔触重现了那个时代与题材,并塑造了极具魅力的角色,这一切都在我心中留下了永恒的印记。 另外,令我惊讶的是,这本书的灵感竟源自历史上规模最大的一次海难——既不是"泰坦尼克号"也不是"卢西塔尼亚号",而是"威廉·古斯特洛夫号"的沉没事件。这是一艘德国运输船,当时载有超过一万名德国军人和难民;然而在1945年1月,当它航行于波罗的海时,遭到了俄罗斯潜艇发射的鱼雷袭击,导致近九千人丧生。 书中我最喜欢的一句话是:"我的战争如此漫长,我的寒冬如此凛冽。但我终于回到了家。"书中那种起初寒冷紧张、随后因希望与团结而逐渐消融的氛围,深深打动了我。当角色那段充满艰险的旅程最终归于平静的终点时,一种宁静感与对人性的热爱油然而生。这种独特的阅读体验令我印象深刻,也正因如此,我会永远铭记这本书。 最后,我觉得书中对英雄主义、荣誉感和家庭观念的刻画很精彩。书中的章节虽短却极具感染力,引人入胜;我总是对自己说"再读一章就睡",结果不知不觉竟通宵读到了天亮。