German Girl (Correa)

The German Girl 
Armando Lucas Correa, 2016
Atria Books
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501121142


Summary
A stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel, perfect for fans of The Nightingale, Schindler’s List, and All the Light We Cannot See, about twelve-year-old Hannah Rosenthal’s harrowing experience fleeing Nazi-occupied Germany with her family and best friend, only to discover that the overseas asylum they had been promised is an illusion.

Before everything changed, young Hannah Rosenthal lived a charmed life.

But now, in 1939, the streets of Berlin are draped with red, white, and black flags; her family’s fine possessions are hauled away; and they are no longer welcome in the places that once felt like home. Hannah and her best friend, Leo Martin, make a pact: whatever the future has in store for them, they’ll meet it together.

Hope appears in the form of the SS St. Louis, a transatlantic liner offering Jews safe passage out of Germany. After a frantic search to obtain visas, the Rosenthals and the Martins depart on the luxurious ship bound for Havana.

Life on board the St. Louis is like a surreal holiday for the refugees, with masquerade balls, exquisite meals, and polite, respectful service. But soon ominous rumors from Cuba undermine the passengers’ fragile sense of safety. From one day to the next, impossible choices are offered, unthinkable sacrifices are made, and the ship that once was their salvation seems likely to become their doom.

Seven decades later in New York City, on her twelfth birthday, Anna Rosen receives a strange package from an unknown relative in Cuba, her great-aunt Hannah. Its contents will inspire Anna and her mother to travel to Havana to learn the truth about their family’s mysterious and tragic past, a quest that will help Anna understand her place and her purpose in the world.

The German Girl sweeps from Berlin at the brink of the Second World War to Cuba on the cusp of revolution, to New York in the wake of September 11, before reaching its deeply moving conclusion in the tumult of present-day Havana.

Based on a true story, this masterful novel gives voice to the joys and sorrows of generations of exiles, forever seeking a place called home. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—1959
• Where—Guantamo, Cuba
• Education—Instituto Superior de Arte de La Habana
• Awards—for journalism (see below)
• Currently—lives in New York City, New York, USA


Armando Lucas Correra is a Cuban-born journalist, editor, and author now living in New York City.

After graduating with a degree in theater and dramaturgy from Cuba's Superior Institute of Art of Havana, Correa began his career as a theater and dance critic. He became an editor for Tablas, a magazine covering the Cuban art scene, and also worked as a correspondent for the Spanish newspaper, El Publico. Later Correa taught dramatical analysis to students of scriptwriting in the International School of Cinema of San Antonio de los Banos.

In 1991 Correa left Cuba for Miami in the U.S. and began working as a reaporter for El Nuevo Herald. Six years later he moved to New York City, where he was hired as principal writer for the recently created People en Espanol. In 2007, he became the magazine's editorial-in-chief, a position he still holds, in which he oversees all editorial content. Today, People en Espanol is the top selling Hispanic magazine in the U.S. with more than 7 million monthly readers.

Correa is the recipient of various outstanding achievement awards from the National Association of Hispanic Publications and the Society of Professional Journalism. He is the primary spokesperson for People en Espanol and regularly appears on national Spanish-language television programs discussing celebrity news and scoops.

His first novel, The German Girl, came out in 2016. His memoir En busca de Emma (In Search of Emma: Two Fathers, One Daughter and the Dream of a Family) was published in 2007 and recounts his struggle to adopt his first daughter as a gay man.

He currently resides in Manhattan with his partner and their three children. (Adapted from Amazon.)

Book Reviews
In 1939, the German ship St. Louis set sail from Hamburg for Havana carrying more than 900 passengers, most of them German Jewish refugees, escaping from the Nazi regime. Correa’s debut novel follows one of those passengers, a 12-year-old girl.... Though the novel covers an important piece of history, the story of the Rosenthals never quite comes together.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) Correa bases his debut novel on the real-life account of the ill-fated 1939 voyage of the St. Louis, delivering an engrossing and heartbreaking Holocaust story; his listing of the passengers' names at the end of the book adds to its power. —Catherine Coyne, Mansfield P.L., MA
Library Journal


The parts of the book set in Berlin and aboard the St. Louis are powerful and affecting.... By contrast, the Cuban scenes seem a little flat and drawn out, and the ending—with Hannah now an old woman—is unexpectedly maudlin. Still, this is a mostly well-told tale that sheds light on a sorrowful piece of Holocaust history.
Kirkus Reviews

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