Book Review: The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa

About:
The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa is a novel taking place during World War II and around 2011.  Mr. Correa is an award winning journalist and author.

• 368 pages
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1501121146

My rat­ing for The German Girl— 4
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More Books by Armando Lucas Correa

Thoughts:
The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa if a fictional account of a German-Jewish family who were able to purchase their freedom from the Nazis. The point of view juxtaposed between two girls of similar ages, one living in Nazi German, the other in New York City.

It was sad to read about Nazi Berlin from the point of view of a little girl who really doesn’t understand why their family is being degraded and ostracized in a daily base from neighbors and friends. Some of those friends became Nazis themselves which made the situation even more miserable.

The author weaves in true events with his story. The tragic case of the St. Louis, German transatlantic liner with 288 passengers escaping certain death. No country would take the refugees, only Cuba allowed 28 to enter and sent the rest back to Europe (the US refused to take any in).

This novel did keep my interest, even though I was more interested in the story of the St. Louis than that of the two girls. The writing flows and the author switches between the two girls to tell a coherent story about personal tragedies.

Synopsis:
Hannah Rosenthal, an 11 year old girl living in Nazi Berlin looks like an Aryan and was even on the cover of a magazine as The German Girl. Hannah is Jewish though, and together with her family she is being ostracized to no end. The Rosenthals however, are very rich and bought their way to Cuba on the St. Louis.

Anna Rosen, an 11 year old girl living in New York City gets a letter from Cuba in which she finds clues to her father’s mysterious past. Anna’s father died on September 11, 2001 and she knows very little about him.

Buy The German Girl from Amazon.com*
More Books by Armando Lucas Correa

Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I got this book for free
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account