Ruta Sepetys came out of the door swinging with her first book, "Between Shades of Gray," and she hasn't slowed down since. "The Fountains of Silence" takes Sepetys' already-proven strengths as an author of historical fiction ("Between Shades of Gray" was set in 1941 Lithuania, "Out of the Easy" in 1950 New Orleans, and "Salt to the Sea" in the Baltic area during 1945) and sets them loose on another fascinating (and under-written) period of history—the post-Spanish Civil War era in Madrid. It opens with one of the most impressive and invocative chapters I've read in a work of historical fiction ("Give them their blood," Rafa's boss tells him, referring to the blood for blood sausage ... but conjuring up so many other implications). And it's packed with characters that move and are moved like real people in the world. Sepetys has impressive writing chops, and they are always at the service of a deeply human story.