Oh, wow. This book. THIS BOOK.
Did I cry? Why, yes, yes I did. I'm starting to think it would be impossible not to, because let’s be honest, my heart is normally made out of stone when it comes to books making me emotional. But by god, I cried.
The German Girl tells the story of two girls: Hannah, a Jewish pre-teen living in Berlin just before the start of World War 2, and Anna, a young girl living in modern-day New York City. Their two stories span multiple generations and the globe, and tell the tale of immigration, revolution and rampant anti-semitism in a world that is so damn cruel. Anna, wanting to more about her deceased father, convinces her mother to travel with her to Cuba to meet her great-Aunt and the only remaining member of his family, Hannah. Her desperate search for information about a man she has never met, frames the story of the family’s escape from Nazi Germany to the island of Cuba and tells of the great dangers of living in two countries torn apart by political conflict.
Formerly of great wealth, Hannah and her family leave everything behind to escape the horrendous treatment at the hands of the Nazis - and let’s be honest, quite a few of Germany’s non-Jewish everyday population. Truth be told, I had never heard of the MS St. Louis and the journey that it took from Germany to the Caribbean island of Cuba in 1939, but now I know that it will be something that will always stay with me. The ship represents, in my mind, the disregard that the world sometimes shows towards people in need and the actions of Cuba, Canada and the United States and the consequences, are truly abhorrent.
Hannah feels as though she could have been a real passenger on that ship. The German Girl is impeccably research and her characterisation, and that of the other members of her family and her friends, is hauntingly well-realised and heartbreakingly human. Hannah’s perspective of the catastrophic events that are taking place around her feels incredibly real and it is believable of her girl of her young age. Tales surrounding the events of World War 2, do not normally take their viewpoint from a person so young (apart from The Book Thief, which I felt has the same feel as The German Girl) and it is something that makes the novel and the real-life events it takes its inspiration from, only more horrifying and saddening to read about.
Overall, a moving and hard-hitting read. Brava!

The German Girl is a slow and at times suffocating account of a fictional family's fate over decades from pre-war Nazi Germany, on board the St Louis, surviving in Cuba and finally dying and surviving the Twin Towers attack in New York. At times I wished the author would hurry up and move the plot forward a bit, but I was also engrossed by a WW2 story which largely takes place outside Europe.

I found the historical setting fascinating, both the sections about Cuba and those on the ill-fated St Louis, but it did feel like the author was trying to tick too many boxes - teenage romance, minorities also persecuted by Nazis, mother-daughter issues, both right and left-wing political extremism.

This story was interesting when you realised that it was a true story. I hadn't heard of St. Louis and its amazing captain and the passengers, their treatment from Cuba, USA and Canada.
The story was built around a family who lived in Germany who were Jewish and were treated appallingly, along with the Jewish people.
I felt that the story didn't grab me as much as I wanted it to and felt that it was either being scant with details or over using too much flowery language.
That said I did eventually get into the story and it was good to find out an important piece of history.
Thanks to NetGalley, Armando Lucas Correa for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Hannah and Anna tell their stories decades apart but both are united by the loss of their fathers to war and terrorist tragedies. Hannah to a concentration camp in WW2 and Anna to the New York skyline on September 11th.

Told in alternating chapters for the most part, the German Girl begins with Hannah (the German Girl of the novels title) and her desire to end her own and her parents life just before WW2. She doesn't want to leave the country she loves, yet she has no choice as she is a Jew, and although no one knows the horror that awaits, the family know that staying in Germany is not an option.

The Nazi's are never explicitly refereed to in this novel, only implied as the 'ogres' but the sinister descriptions of their behaviours and flags leaves the reader in no doubt. I wasn't familiar with the story of the ship, St. Louis before picking up the German Girl, but like so many WW2 tales, it is a tragic one. The blindsided behaviour of the US and Canada cost many their lives.

When Hannah arrives in Cuba, it is with the belief that her best friend Leo and his family will follow as soon as the ship is allowed to dock. But their fate has already been sealed, although the war may not have yet begun.

Decades later in New York, Anna is trying to encourage her Mother out of her bedroom. Since her Father was killed on 9/11 she has never been the same, but then a letter arrives from a relative - in Cuba; Hannah, and suddenly life got a whole lot more interesting.

The German Girl is a beautifully written novel with a tragedy at its heart, a must read for historical fiction fans, a very impressive debut...

I have read a lot of world war two fiction in my time as a reader and more recently, my interest has become increasingly concerned with Holocaust literature and stories concerning the specific exploration of Jewish people during the time. Having spent this semester studying the place of Holocaust Cinema, this book seemed to come at quite a nice conclusion to the year. I was lucky enough to receive this book as an e-arc from Netgalley and Simon and Schuster UK in exchange for an honest review.

‘The German Girl’ follows two young girls- Hannah, a German Jew in the 1930s whose family is attempting to escape the Nazi regime by fleeing to Cuba, and Anna, the young niece of Hannah, a New York teenager wanting to know about the death of her father, Louis. The novel switches accounts between the two girls, effectively providing a full life look at Hannah, whilst Anna’s section focuses on her pilgrimage to Cuba to discover her heritage.

To be honest, I knew nothing about the historical context of this book as I went into it; I thought it would have remained in Berlin throughout the novel, but the opposite was in fact true. I did not know that Cuba was a popular destination among Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, or that the story that this narrative is based around was a true one. Some of the actions of the governments seem so horrific that you must wonder whether it is simply fiction. The whole novel allows us to see a retrospective view on how refugees at the time were treated. It feels aptly well timed to our own world currently.

This novel was incredibly well written. Rather than trying to dramatize the rise of Nazism and the refugee crisis that the world experienced at the time, it allows us to look through the eyes of a child ripped away from her home and sent out into the world where she is viewed as ‘impure’. At times, things become suspenseful and you’re desperate to turn the page, if only to know what’s happening next. It’s a story about humans, about how people intertwine their lives with their history. Moreover, it reinforces this idea that saying, ‘never again’ may not determine the end of forced labour and the existence of the concentration camp.

Personally, I would have liked to have spent a little more time exploring how Hannah’s family’s Jewishness affected their lives and whether this was something instilled into their lives. Moreover, there’s a lot in the way of how people died, but not a huge amount of explanation as to what truly happened. They’re very small criticisms, but it just pulled me out of the story a little. I think that this would suit both adult and young adult readers, particularly because of the choice of protagonists. This novel reminded me of books like ‘Lilac Girls’ and ‘The Nightingale’, so if you enjoyed those books, you’ll love this one.
‘The German Girl’ will be released in the UK on December 14th.

Hannah was a wealthy German Jewish girl who's family tried to escape Germany and travel to Cuba on the ill fated SS St Louis - full of hope for a new life everything is dashed when the ship is turned away and the refugees have to try and find other countries to take them in.

Anna is living in New York in 2014 and is 12, the same age Hannah was when she boarded the SS St Louis. Anna is the great niece of Hannah although they have never met and she never knew her father who was brought up by Hannah and was killed in the twin towers, when she receives a packet of photos from Hannah she and her mother decide to travel to Cuba to meet her

This is a great historical novel - I have always been fascinated by stories of the holocaust - and loved the story of the SS St Louis and although obviously a sad story it was also very interesting

I had absolutely no idea about the story of the St Louis and its passengers so it was fascinating to learn about it from this story.

I thought the idea behind the plot in this novel was fantastic. I've read quite a lot of books set in the time period of World War Two, and have studied it quite heavily at school, but never even heard of the people who fled to Cuba from Germany. It's really wonderful, finding out things about the past through a novel. It definitely made me wonder about all the other stories I don't know. At the end of The German Girl, Correa wrote about the history of these events in the Author's Notes. Unfortunately, I found this short historical chapter more interesting than the rest of the novel.

After reading the book, I discovered that it was originally written in Spanish and has only recently been translated into English. Perhaps it is the translation, then, that has soured things for me - I never connected with the writing style, and found myself reading the book because I wanted to finish it rather than because it was drawing me in and I couldn't wait to pick it back up.

Both girls were meant to be aged twelve, but the language they used ranged from sounding like children (calling Nazi's Ogres, for example), to using words and phrases that I know I'd never heard of when I was that age. This made it really difficult to connect to them; from the narrative voice I initially assumed that Anna was in her late teens, not eleven years old. This would potentially not have been the case in the original text, but I found that in English the characters weren't quite real to me.

All in all, I'm giving this book 2/5. I thought that the plot was really interesting, but the characterisation and writing style in general could have been better.

The German Girl is a story of displaced, victims of impending doom in a place where they are hardly welcome. It showed a side of people and lives fleeing Germany on the eve of ww2. I found the story immersed in sadness and without hope. The plot was extremely bleak and the characters doomed from the start.

Amazed that this is a debut novel. Highly recommended. Excellent book for book groups.

Wow..just wow. This book has to be up there with my favourites of all time.
I love reading books on the holocaust, even though it's such a sad subject I feel like it's one that needs to told time and again so when I saw the subject of The German Girl, I knew it would be right up my street.
This book tells the story of a Jewish family and how they fled Germany to go to America, the story is told by Hannah (The German Girl). This is the first time I have heard of the St Louis and the crossing to Cuba and it is heartbreaking.
It's hard to pinpoint what it is about this book that's so amazing, the writing is brilliant, the story is amazing and so sad at the same time. I loved Hannah's mother who despite everything that happened to them, she wouldn't let the outside world know how she felt inside.
I sobbed at the end of this book and it's one that will stay with me for a long time. I wanted to hear the story but I didn't want it to end. I feel like now I don't know what else to do, if that makes sense!
Everyone needs to read this book, it is amazing and I would give it more than five stars if I could. Read it you'll love it.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy for an honest review.

The book follows the life of Hannah, a Jewish girl living in Germany in 1939. Through her eyes we see the persecution of Jews at that time and the impact on her family and their life. Other stories are interwoven through Hannah's giving perspectives from different generations.

The book is well written and conveys feelings of fear, impotence and anger at the injustices suffered but at the same time shows how important love, family and friendships are and how they can endure even the most horrifying situations.

I enjoyed the fact the story was underpinned by some factual information and it taught me something new about WW2.

Reading about the Holocaust is never easy but to read about a situation which seemed to offer hope but instead resulted in even more heartbreak is very hard indeed. I’m talking about the real life story of the St Louis which took over 900 Jewish refugees from war torn Germany to cuba only to ben turned back. Some got on the island but most were taken to England and other countries where ultimately Germany invaded and they were taken to concentration camps.

Told through the eyes of the characters in this book – two women decades apart really allows you to see what it would have been like to have walked in their shoes. The tragedy of 9/11 shows how little we have learned about the brutality of some human beings and the violence which seems to know no end. The subject might be hard to swallow at various points but the fresh writing and excellent translation make this a novel you have to read.

I felt very sad at the end, sadder still that this was based on a true story. Sad that the persecution and violence of the war is still happening in the world and there are lots more Annas, Hannahs and Leos whose stories we might never know.