Between Shades of Gray

by Ruta Sepetys

Success meant survival. Failure meant death.

What was life asking of me? How could I respond when I didn’t know the question?

evil will rule until good men or women choose to act.

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” —Albert Camus

It is estimated that Josef Stalin killed more than twenty million people during his reign of terror.

Some wars are about bombing. For the people of the Baltics, this war was about believing. In 1991, after fifty years of brutal occupation, the three Baltic countries regained their independence, peacefully and with dignity. They chose hope over hate and showed the world that even through the darkest night, there is light. Please research it. Tell someone. These three tiny nations have taught us that love is the most powerful army. Whether love of friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy—love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit. Ruta E. Sepetys