Ruta Sepetys

Ruta Sepetys is a Lithuanian-American writer of historical fiction, mainly for young readers. Born in Detroit in 1967, she belongs to a generation of authors who have brought little-known episodes of twentieth-century European history to a wide audience. Her books have been published in more than sixty countries and forty languages.

She studied economics and finance at Hillsdale College and then moved to Los Angeles, where she founded a music management firm. She turned to writing later, inspired by her father's story: as a child he fled Lithuania after the Soviet annexation, spent years in refugee camps and then emigrated to the United States.

Her first novel, Between Shades of Gray, appeared in 2011 after extensive research. Her later books move between very different settings: 1950s New Orleans, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945, and post-war Franco-era Madrid. Sepetys tends to follow young protagonists on the margins of official history, and her plain, propulsive prose balances suspense with a clear view of repression.

Her legacy lies in bringing collective tragedies that school textbooks often skip to young readers, and in her appearances at European institutions such as the European Parliament.