Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life theyÕve known. 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. Here they are forced, under StalinÕs orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions. Lina finds solace in her art, meticulouslyÑand at great riskÑdocumenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her fatherÕs prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Grayis a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.