The German Girl

Hannah is one of two major protagonists and narrators of The German Girl. The novel begins with Hannah’s adventures as a 12-year-old girl in Berlin but ultimately spans her entire life, up until her last moments as an 87-year-old woman in Cuba. Hannah’s life, and especially her journey onboard the MS St. Louis, comprise the novel’s main events. She grows from a young girl running amok with her friend Leo in the streets of Berlin in 1939, to a young woman witnessing the revolutions of the 1960s at the University of Havana, to a pharmacist and businessowner whose business is stripped from her by her own government. She finds herself raising her nephew after her brother and his wife take on government roles in the Cuban revolution. Lastly, she finds herself an old woman in a country where she knows very few people. One thread that ties together these phases of her life is her journey onboard the St. Louis. It was on this journey that she saw her father and possibly the love of her life, Leo, for the last time. It was also this fateful journey that permanently separated her from her homeland, her past, and her culture.