“I will tell you what happened, but only if you promise not to use my name.”

That is an excerpt from a letter I received from a woman, now in her eighties, who was arrested by the Soviet secret police when she was a teenager. She learned about Between Shades of Gray from a friend and realized she was one of many who shared the same secret.

The book chronicles the journey of fifteen-year-old Lina who risks everything, including the boy she loves, to save her family amidst Stalin’s terror. It’s a story of love, survival, and the miraculous power of the human spirit.

I am the daughter of a Lithuanian refugee and began the journey that is this novel several years ago when I visited the Baltics. In meeting with survivors of Stalin’s atrocities I learned things that would forever change my life. I was left with questions such as, “What does it take to bear the unbearable?” and “How do you keep hope alive?”

History holds secrets. I hope this story will give voice to the countless people who were affected by the horrors of the Soviet occupation and forced to remain silent for fifty years.