The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa

The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa tells the story of the Rosenthal family, who fled Berlin in 1939 and headed to Cuba on the Saint Louis (a real ship which was turned around by the Cuban government, who only let a handful of the 900 plus passengers disembark). Their family is split apart by this decision, with 12 year-old Hannah and her pregnant mother allowed to stay, and her father and close friend Leo sent back to Europe. The story is obviously a tragic one, as the passengers who made it to England survived, while those who landed in France, her father included, did not. This little known snippet of the sad state of the world in the antisemitic mid-twentieth century is reason enough to read this book and marvel at the fact that we have come so far, and yet not, considering the treatment of ships full of present day refugees in the Mediterranean.

As a story it feels a little like The Orphan Train meets All the Light We Cannot See, which is not necessarily a bad thing, as it's one of those books that can engage both young and old audiences. It also has its own twists, and it incorporates a lot of Cuban history, following the descendants of Hannah's family and the tragedy that continues to befall them. All in all a worthy read.