Separated by time but united by sacrifice, four women embark on journeys of self-discovery and find themselves to be living testaments to the power of motherly love as they experience love, loss, war, and hope in this sweeping novel.
Berlin, 1931: Ally Keller, a talented young poet, is alone and scared when she gives birth to a mixed-race daughter she names Lilith. Ally knows she must keep her baby in the shadows to protect her. But as she grows, it becomes more and more difficult to keep Lilith hidden so Ally sets in motion a dangerous and desperate plan to send her daughter across the ocean to safety.
Havana, 1958: Now an adult, Lilith is excited for her future with her beloved Martin, a Cuban pilot with strong ties to the Batista government. But as the flames of revolution ignite, Lilith and her newborn daughter, Nadine, find themselves at a terrifying crossroads.
Berlin, 1988: Now a scientist in Berlin, Nadine is dedicated to ensuring the dignity of the remains of all those who were murdered by the Nazis. Yet she has spent her entire lifetime avoiding the truth about her own family’s history and the truth about the choices her mother and grandmother made to ensure the survival of their children. And it will fall to Luna to come to terms with a shocking betrayal that changes everything she thought she knew about her family’s past.
Armando Lucas Correa is an award-winning journalist, editor, and bestselling author of The German Girl. The Night Travelers is his latest novel, and he sure knows how to pack a punch. At its heart, the novel poses two impossible questions: what would a parent do to save their child? And, would you abandon them if it was the only way to protect them?
The Night Travelers is set against the backdrop of three turbulent times in the 20th century: the rise of Nazism and World War II, the Cuban Revolution, and the Cold War. This sweeping tale also covers four generations of mothers and daughters. It’s a potent combination which is intense, heartbreaking and rewarding. A topic that’s often shied away from has been bravely embraced, the story of the parents, who in order to keep their children safe, were made to abandon them… and the inheritance of trauma that accompanies such loss.
The Night Travelers is a story about normal people caught in history’s extenuating and most brutal circumstances. It’s a compelling cross-generational tale where, at times, I wanted to hide from the next sentence, aware of the pain it bore each of the leading women, but it also reminded me of the magnitude of a mother’s love. Correa is a broad writer in the best sense of the word. You can feel the love he has for his characters, as well as the level of research he has achieved to create such differing worlds and times, all at once. It’s a great reminder of the perils of the past and the need to understand each other’s stories before deeming them worthy or otherwise.
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