Very well research historical fiction account of the refugee crisis in 1945 Eastern Germany as millions of civilians fled the advancing Russian army. While this story focuses on the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustav, the authors note at the end includes the long list of refugee ships that were sunk in the Baltic Sea in this year. My fathers family was on one of these ships that made it past the gauntlet of Uboats, so I have heard the stories of the flight of refugees out of what’s now Poland all my life (my family left from the port at Danzig and like some of the characters in the story, stayed in a refugee camp outside Hamburg and then immigrated to the US). Important story of how war destroys the lives of us he people caught in its path – as powerful as The Book Thief.