Ruta Sepetys - Between Shades of Gray (2011)

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Andrius, I'm...scared." He stopped and turned to me. "No. Don't be scared. Don't give them anything Lina, not even your fear.

Ruta Sepetys
I felt as if I were riding a pendulum. Just as I would swing into the abyss of hopelessness, the pendulum would swing back with some small goodness.

Ruta Sepetys
Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness. There's love and emotion trying to express itself, but at the time, it just ends up being awkward.

Ruta Sepetys
Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brother's was worth a pocket watch.

Ruta Sepetys
Good men are often more practical than pretty " said Mother. "Andrius just happens to be both.

Ruta Sepetys
You stand for what is right, Lina, without the expectation of gratitude or reward.

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

Ruta Sepetys
He threw his burning cigarette onto our clean living room floor and ground it into the wood with his boot. We were about to become cigarettes.

Ruta Sepetys
I shut the bathroom door and caught sight of my face in the mirror. I had no idea how quickly it was to change, to fade. If I had, I would have stared at my reflection, memorizing it. It was the last time I would look into a real mirror for more than a decade.

Ruta Sepetys
How did I get here How did I end up in the arms of a boy I barely knew but knew I didn't want to lose I wondered what I would have thought of Andrius in Lithuania. Would I have liked him Would he have liked me

Ruta Sepetys
My breathing slowed. I shaded her thick chestnut hair resting in a smooth curve against her face, a large bruise blazing across her cheek. I paused, looking over my shoulder to make certain I was alone. I drew her eye makeup, smudged by tears. In her watery eyes I drew the reflection of the commander, standing in front of her, his fist clenched. I continued to sketch, exhaled, and shook out my hands.

Ruta Sepetys
People I didn't know formed a circle around me, sheltering me from view. They escorted me safely back to our jurta, undetected. They didn't ask for anything. They were happy to help someone, to succeed at something, even if they weren't to benefit. We'd been trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean. I realized that if we boosted one another, maybe we'd get a little closer.

Ruta Sepetys
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 Sepetys
I planted a seed of hatred in my heart. I swore it would grow to be a massive tree whose roots would strangle them all.

Ruta Sepetys
Sometimes kindness can be delivered in a clumsy way. But it's far more sincere in its clumsiness than those distinguished men you read about in books. Your father was very clumsy.

Ruta Sepetys
I looked down at the little pink face in the bundle. A newborn. The child had been alive only minutes but was already considered a criminal by the Soviets.

Ruta Sepetys
We'd been trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean.

Ruta Sepetys