Lina Vilkas is the narrator of the novel. It is through her perspective that we experience the Soviet genocide of Lithuanians, as she serves as a witness to many atrocities and experiences the loss of both her parents. She is fifteen years old when the novel begins and, over the next several years in Soviet custody, is forced to grow up much faster and confront much more horrific truths about humankind than most people do in a lifetime.

The novel is also Lina’s “coming-of-age” story. As a teenager, she is already in the process of becoming an adult, and over the course of the novel, she falls in love, becomes a mother-figure to her younger brother and Janina, and, most importantly, is able to empathize with the one person she believes she hates the most—Nikolai Kretzsky.

The book is also about Lina’s development as an artist. Though she is already talented and accomplished before the Vilkas’s deportation to Siberia, her experiences in Siberia give new purpose to her art: where she has always clearly felt compelled to draw; now she feels compelled to draw and to bear witness—to leave a record of the history the Soviets would rather erase. She also gains new appreciation for the aesthetic of her favorite artist, Edvard

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