Author: Armando Lucas Correa
ISBN: 978-1-4711-6160-5
RRP: $29.99
The German Girl is a new release already gaining some great reviews. I was approached by Simon & Schuster to feature this one as a book club and it is getting rave reviews in their office so I couldn’t resist. I hope our readers love it just as much.
I have an interesting relationship with historical novels in that I don’t read a lot of them but generally I grow to love the ones I do read. The German Girl is quite recent history and it centres on a terrible time for the human race which I fear is becoming more and more likely to happen again.
The story opens in Berlin, the year is 1939 and the persecution of ‘undesirables’ has begun. It isn’t actually said for a long time who the ‘undesirables’ are but we can put the pieces together to work it out. They are stripped of their jobs, their businesses and pushed out of their homes. Eventually 900 of them manage to buy passage on the SS St. Louis to take them out of Germany to begin a new life.
Hannah Rosenthal is fast approaching twelve and her life has always been charmed, her parents are wealthy and well respected in the community. All of this changes when the red, white and black flags begin being draped all through the city. Hannah and her best friend Leo continue exploring the streets of Berlin, avoiding the uniforms and the turned down noses of the pure. Leo is great at listening to what is going on with the adults and he manages to know what’s going to happen before it does.
A lot has been written about World War II and much of it focuses on the actual war, The German Girl takes us back before war is declared, to when the persecution began. 900 passengers boarded the SS St. Louis in the hope of starting a new life elsewhere. They managed to get together the exorbitant fees for passages and visas, through two different channels,and sail for Cuba where they plan to stay transitionally until they reach the top of the waiting list for entry into America.
Anna Rosen is an eleven year old girl living in New York City who receives a strange parcel of photos from Cuba connecting her to a family she wasn’t aware she had. She travels with her mother to meet her great-aunt Hannah and learn about where her family came from.
The German Girl is well researched and beautifully written, its is a heartbreaking tale of persecution and never finding a place to belong. It tells the tale of displaced persons who were evicted from their homes and unable to find a new one. They worked hard to gain entrance to another country and left their homes in good faith, only to be betrayed again. Families were separated, fortunes were lost and acceptance was never found even where resettlement was allowed.
I think it is important that these novels are still being written to highlight the acts perpetrated in World War II, many of us weren’t around to see it first hand but history certainly seems to be repeating.
There were a lot of things not actually spelled out which I think was a great story-telling tool and certainly spoke volumes about the times Hannah lived through.
I found that The German Girl took quite a while to really engage me, I’m not quite sure why. The story-telling was realistic and emotional, it was well written and the research was well done. I still read the first half in very short bursts, but once I was invested I got through the second half in a day or so. The German Girl tells an important story and I think it is one that we need to remember.
The Author’s Note tells us of the factual basis of the story and it’s heartbreaking to think of what these people went through, and what refugees suffer today.
Armando Lucas Correa can be followed on Facebook.
The German Girl is published by Simon & Schuster and is available now from Angus & Robertson Bookworld, Booktopia and where all good books are sold.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster 30 of our Beauty and Lace club members will be reading The German Girl so please be aware there may be spoilers in the comments below.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
Thank you Beauty & Lace & Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read The German Girl.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel by Armando Lucas Correa and was quite tempted to read it all in one sitting! It was well written and gave me great insight into what life was like for Jewish people before the awful second world war.
The story is told through the eyes of the main characters Hannah and Anna and even though this is a fictional read, the meticulous research by the writer is obvious and could very truly be very close to the truth.
Well done to Armando Lucas Correa for this exceptional novel.
The German Girl is a thought provoking book based on factual events of the persecution of the Jewish in Germany.
The strength that these people had to endure being ripped from their homeland and be treated as undesirables amazes me.
Even though this book is fiction, there has been meticulous research that shines throughout and the reproduction of the original St Louis ship passenger list and the photos included at the end of the book brings the reality of these unsettled times to life.
The book is told through the eyes of a 12 year old girl living through this and her great niece many years later and the meeting of these two is heart wrenching.
I knew very little bout the forced relocation of the Jewish people in World War Two.
I highly recommend reading The German Girl to war buffs.
Once again thank you for the opportunity to review this novel. I enjoy books which have a base in truth and as appalling as the events of the 1930s and 40s were for Jewish people in Europe, the author has imbued the story line with the courage, strength and reslience of those who were victims of genecide. The interweaving of the past with the present, Hannah and Anna brings a sense of hope for the future but it is important to keep reminding ourselves of the volatile nature of humanity. In current times we have similar issues with refugees so perhaps things have not changed ? Congratulations to Armando Lucas Correa for the in depth research and the timely reminders that humanity is still capable of atrocities such as these.
The German Girl is about a little-known event from World War II but it’s an important story nonetheless. The book is the debut novel from journalist, Armando Lucas Correa. It is also a fictional re-telling of the transatlantic passage of the St Louis ship that travelled from Hamburg to Cuba in 1939. It’s a story that remains relevant today as we need to consider the plight of refugees throughout the world.
This story alternates between the perspectives of two young women. There is the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Hannah Rosenthal. She is the daughter of a professor and a member of a wealthy, German family. She is Jewish but in some respects she is accepted by the German community because she looks Aryan, much to the chagrin of the “ogres” (the name that she as a child gives the Nazis.)
Over time, the Rosenthal family is like many of the other Jewish families living in Germany at the time, in that they are subject to discrimination and maltreatment. Eventually the situation becomes so untenable that they sell everything they have in order to buy tickets to travel across the sea and gain passage to Cuba in the hope of eventually settling in America. But things do not go according to plan because Cuba reneges on its promises (i.e. on the previously-issued visas that were awarded to the majority of the passengers.)
Anna Rosen is the other key narrator here. She is Hannah’s long-lost niece who is living in New York with her mother. Rosen’s father seems like a mystery to Anna because he was killed in the tragedies that took place in America on September 11. Anna’s father never got to know that he would become a father someday. Rosen’s aunt reaches out to her niece and the two bond over family history, sadness and shared tragedy.
The German Girl is a cautionary tale about an overlooked chapter in history. It’s an emotional story filled with uncertainty, horror and heartbreak. This is ultimately a well-researched and emotive book that offers another important perspective on the atrocities of the Second World War and patriotism in general.
Captivating. I couldn’t put it down. A story and characters that will haunt me for life. One of the best books I read in 2016. Highly recommend.
What a fantastic book! It reminded me of how lucky we are that brave people fought for us so these terrible horrors ended. Read this book and hold a piece of history with you forever.
Though years apart the lives of Hannah and Anna are not all that different. This tale tells of the struggles of a 12 year old Hannah trying to understand and deal with the changes and hardships in Berlin just pre and during WWII. Her friends now foreign to her as she is “impure” and her family struggling to survive.
Anna, also 12, is growing up in 2014 in a world where her father was taken from her before her birth, sending her mother into depressive turmoil.
Unknowing they are from the same family until a surprise parcel leads Anna on a journey of discovery to find out who her father was, her heritage and essentially herself.
Such a different perspective this book has taken. It clearly demonstrates the lessons not yet learnt in the world. Highlights how fortunate we are in the now and how unfair the past has been. An eye opener and a great read. Thanks for the opportunity!
Hannah is a carefree 12 year old Jewish girl, living a life of opulence with her parents. Her close relationship with a fellow Jewish boy Leo is a special bond they share. Life becomes unbearable but for those who can afford visas and sea passage from Germany, the prospect of a new beginning looms. Hannah and her parents, together with Leo and his father board the St Louis passenger ship for Havana, Cuba. All seems well on the ship until word reaches them that the visas they have paid for are no longer valid and the Cuban government won’t let them disembark. Only those few that had visas issued by the Secretary of State of Cuba will be accepted. Hannah and her mother are amongst the few to disembark in Cuba. So the fate of over 900 passengers aboard is now unknown. this book reminded me of the stories my mum told us about how the Jewish people were treated during the war
it was very well written and it pull and your heartstrings i cried when parts reminded me of mums stories
What an absorbing and incredibly important Armando Lucas Correa’s The German Girl is, relating the pre-WWII atrocities of Nazi Germany and humanising their impact on so many people around the world. I had never previously heard the tragic story of the St Louis and its passengers and found it fascinating and heart-breaking all at once. And the impact on many future generations was immense. The ongoing Rosenthal family curse is seen with the link to the Twin Towers.
This book has opened my eyes to an area of modern history I was not previously familiar with, and has also prompted me to learn more about Cuban history.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in history, politics or drama. It is thoroughly researched and well written, and the archival material provided at the end brings home how solid a grounding in historical events the book has. I was deeply moved by the strength of character and ongoing compassion shown by Hannah and read the last few pages through tears.
Thanks so much to Beauty and Lace and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review this powerful portrayal of a tragic time full of heinous acts with long-lasting effects.
Thank you Beauty and Lace for selecting me to read The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa
This book is amazing the author has written an incredible book that takes readers an insight as to the horrors that the jewish people had to endure
The book begins in Berlin 1939 with a young girl called Hannah and her family
The next chapter we are in 2014 New York with another young girl called Anna even thought the chapters do go backwards and forwards to different times the book is incredibly easy to read
The author has really put a lot of research into this book as you can see by the beautiful pictures from the US Holocaust Museum and the credits in the back of the book
I have personally read the story of the SS St. louis and these poor passengers never had any idea of outcome when they set sail from Germany to Cuba
Armando Lucas Correa thank you for writing this incredible book