Hautzig's fluid narrative style makes The Endless Steppe an extremely readable book. She carefully paces the story of her five years in Siberia, vividly recreating significant characters through dramatic dialogue and description. Condensing her experience into a series of exciting, moving incidents, Hautzig forgoes depth of characterization or complex analysis of issues. Emphatic one-line paragraphs—such as, "But in 1939 Hitler's armies marched on Poland."—and brief, cliff-hanger chapters quickly draw the reader into the story and propel the action forward.

Despite its deceptively simple and straightforward style, The Endless Steppe uses understatement and symbolism that deepen the meaning of the story. The book opens with a statement that demands further explanation and therefore immediately piques the reader's interest: "The morning it happened—the end of my lovely world—I did not water the lilac bush outside my father's study." In this typically...