The Night Sparrow, Shelly Sanders (Review by Kristin Kurek)

The Night Sparrow by Shelly Sanders follows Russian sniper and translator, Elena Bruskina, during the second world war. The novel is written as a dual timeline story. One timeline follows Elena through her life in the Minsk ghetto as a Russian woman of Jewish descent. After losing her family to the various cruelties inflicted by the Nazis, Elena joins the Central Women’s Sniper Training School to avenge their death’s at the hands of fascists. She meets many incredible women in training who become friends.

The second timeline follows Elena as she becomes a German translator for the Russians as they search for Hitler as Berlin falls to the Russian army. Has Hitler escaped? Is he hiding? Is the dead?

While this novel is a work of historical fiction, it is based on very real female Russian snipers. Shelly includes a quote from a publication, radio broadcast, or diary before the start of every chapter. I felt that this inclusion really allowed the reader to stay connected to the fact that the story is based on actual occurrences. I certainly enjoyed the perspective of a Russian women at the end of World War II, a perspective that I had very little knowledge about. I also had not considered the urgency to find Adolf Hitler at the end of the war to determine if he was dead or operating from a new, remote location.

The writing style of this novel was very Hemingway-esque. It was direct and clinically portrayed the horrors that Elena experiences in her travels. The author does not romanticize or avoid descriptions of the atrocities that occurred around Elena. I, personally, found the writing style to be wonderful in portrayal of wartimes. I also found Elena’s story to be a refreshing, not oft explored perspective to the second world war. This novel was fascinating and inspired me to delve further into research into female Russian snipers who defied social norms to make an enormous impact in the defeat of fascism.