About this item
In 1939 before everything changed, Hannah Rosenthal lived a charmed life. Her family moved in Berlin's highest social circles, admired by friends and neighbors. She spent her afternoons at the park with her best friend Leo Martin. But, in an instant, that sunlit world vanished. Now the streets of Berlin are draped with red, white, and black flags; their fine possessions are hauled away, and they are no longer welcome in the places that once felt like home. The two friends make a pact: come what may, they promise to have a future together. Decades later in New York City on her eleventh birthday, Anna Rosen receives a mysterious envelope from Hannah, a great-aunt she has never met but who raised her deceased father. Anna and her mother travel to Havana to meet Hannah, who is turning eighty-seven years old.
About the Author
With 20 years of experience in Hispanic media, award-winning journalist and author Armando Lucas Correa is the Editor in Chief of PEOPLE EN ESPAÑOL, the top selling Hispanic magazine in the U.S. with more than 7 million readers every month. In his role, he oversees the editorial content of the magazine, PeopleEnEspanol.com and its digital editions for tablets and mobile.
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 magazine's primary spokesperson and regularly appears on national Spanish-language television programs discussing celebrity news and scoops.
His first novel The German Girl was published in October in Enlgish and Spanish by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
His book En busca de Emma (In Search of Emma: Two Fathers, One Daughter and the Dream of a Family) was published by Rayo, Harper Collins in 2007 and for Aguilar, Santillana (Mexico) in 2009.
He currently resides in Manhattan with his partner and their three children
"This fascinating novel of the tragic St Louis, the ship of rejected humans, is a brilliant entrée into the souls and family complexities, the terrors, ardors, endeavors and hopeless valor of people who have been written off not only by a tyrant, Hitler, but who have been rejected as a nuisance by a self-absorbed world. Over the years, and in a new, ambiguous age of people in peril and adrift on the world's seas, this magnificent novel bespeaks this eternal injustice, as well as the unexpected and intricate tragedies of its powerfully imagined characters. " - Thomas Keneally, Bestselling author of Schindler's List
"An unforgettable and resplendent novel which will take its place among the great historical fiction written about World War II. Hannah Rosenthal will remain in your heart and her determination to tell the story of what she saw, lived, and lost will change the way you look at the world."
- Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of The Shoemaker's Wife
"A vital tribute to liberty, love and justice ... one of the most fascinating and extraordinary literary events of recent times." - Zoé Valdés, international bestselling author of The Weeping Woman
"Correa brings the refugee experience alive in this in this timely must-read." - People
"[An] ambitious debut novel ... powerful and affecting ... that sheds light on a sorrowful piece of Holocaust history." -Kirkus
"Correa deploys facts to honor his fictional subjects. In a heartbreaking appendix, he lists every passenger on the St. Louis. If this ship's manifest is insufficiently potent, Correa writes to remind us of the deadly consequences of closed borders, neglected refugees, and maligned and forgotten immigrants.&quo
