the story of a twelve-year-old girl’s harrowing experience fleeing Nazi-occupied Germany with her family and best friend, only to discover that the overseas asylum they had been promised is an illusion.
if you are tired of WW II books you might not want to read this. However it is well written, based on a true happening. Its dark and links three events: WW II, Cuban revolution and 9/11
a good read.

Although the subject matter is interesting and informative, there are several reasons I couldn't rate it higher. First, this isn't a genre I typically enjoy. Second, I'm not a fan of a child narrator and these girls in particular were irritating. As much as I tried to like them, Hannah and Anna were like caricatures. Come to think of it, there wasn't a single character I connected with in this novel. Third, what's with these mothers? Anna's mother in particular was perplexing. She spends 12 years languishing in bed and then *snap* is cured of depression/substance abuse (we never know what actually) and is hyped for a trip to Cuba? Huh? Lastly and most significantly, the pace was painfully slow for me. It made it hard to keep focused on the story.

I liked the way this story connected WWII and the holocaust to the subsequent fall of Cuba, many years later. I'd always viewed them as separate occurrences and hadn't realize that there were families who fled Germany to only then to additionally undergo Castro's revolution and takeover a few years later - and how both events resonated with similar Nazi and "cleansing" themes (your heart just sinks into your stomach). One's classification of who is "pure and impure" is subjective and these impositions, by influential people, have repeatedly resulted in hatred and death our fellow brothers and sisters. Correa also expertly teaches the reader about the little known fate of the passengers on the St. Louis and sadly reveals the rejection they encountered, not only from Cuba, but from other countries as well, including the United States; the Germans were not the only ones at fault for ostracizing and killing Jews. The beginning of this story did confuse me a bit as it jumped right into alternating perspectives and time periods, with also past and present views. I had to reread the first few chapters a few times to get my bearings. The writing was very straightforward, so easy to read, but also then seemed to lack some emphasis or "punch" as it described the very harrowing events Hannah and her family endured. A good, historical read.