On Sale Date: October 18th 2016
Pages:360
1938: Twelve year old Hannah Rosenthal lives with her mom and dad in Berlin. They are a real socialite family who are admired by many people, especially because her father is a doctor that teaches medication at the university. But slowly on, their live changes for the bad and worst, as the Nazi's take over Germany. As they are Jewish, the live of the Rosenthal is in great danger. It even c omes that far that a group of Nazi's enters their house and take Hannah's father away. Luckily he returns, but as the danger is so imminent they have to flee. The chance arises to go on a ship that will take them to Cuba, as they are are told they are welcome their. So it happens that soon after, they are sailing the ocean. Luck for Hannah that her best friend Leo is also aboard with his father. But then something very unexpected happens. In Cuba, there has been some resistance by the people to take in the refugees, and even the government has second thoughts. Soon after, they state that they refuse to give the passengers of the arriving ship entry to Cuba (and also the United States and Canada refuse them entry_ and that the ship may not even stop on their coast. Later on, only some passengers are granted entry and this means that Hannah and her mom have to say farewell to their husband and father and to Leo, who are both sent back to war torn Europe, they will never see them again and have to settle and survive by themselves in their new homeland.
New York 2014: Anna and her mom receive a letter from a certain Hannah from Cuba. They learn that Hannah was the great aunt who raised Anna's father. Anna's father went missing on September 11 2001, when he was on his way to his work in Lower Manhattan. Anna and her mother travel to Havana to meet Hannah, and there Anna learns more about her father and about Hanna's history.Bringing together the pain of the past with the mysteries of the present, Hannah gives young Anna a sense of their shared histories, forever intertwining their lives, honoring those they loved and cruelly lost.
Just in search for my next read, I browsed on my e-reader and found out that I had an egalley of this one. I truly liked the synopsis so decided to give this one a go. And I am glad I did as this book was outstandingly good! From the beginning till the last page it had me hooked. The plot is full unexpected events happening, and you can just feel the horror the passengers on the ship had to face when they where denied entrance everywhere. The ship that had to bring them luck now turned out to be their death sentence.
Another thing that I liked was that it was set in two different time periods. Hannah and Anna face both in different era's the same type of loss, and that really bounds them together when Anna visits Hanna in Cuba.
The writing is just beautiful and together with the amazing and moving plot it forms book that I highly recommend reading!!
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