3.5 Stars
One Liner: Dark, heavy, and overwhelming in content but lacks the emotional impact

The Night Travelers is the story of four generations of women whose lives change during the Nazi rule, the Cuban Revolution, and the fall of the Berlin wall. The story starts with Ally Keller giving birth to Lilith, a mixed-race daughter, in Berlin, in 1931.
Life in Havana seems happy for Lilith in 1958 until the Cuban Revolution puts her and her daughter Nadine at risk. It’s 1988 in Berlin, and Nadine is a dedicated scientist trying to ignore her family history. Luna, Nadine’s daughter, decides it’s time she knew the truth of the past. But what does it do to her life?
The story comes in the third-person POV of the main characters.

My Thoughts:
The book spans the years covering WWII, the Cuban Revolution, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is rooted in historical events and feels heavy throughout. It’s not an easy book to read (in many ways).
The beginning is wow. It starts strong with Ally giving birth to Lilith in Berlin when only Aryans were considered a pure race. But as the story progressed, the emotions don't register. It’s like watching a movie on the neighbor’s telly. I can’t connect with any of the characters. The writing is kind of monotone, with very little emphasis to make me feel for any of the ladies. I’m not sure if the emotions were lost in translation, but all four of them sound the same, albeit in slightly different ways.
The story moves back and forth and is divided into three acts. The shifting timelines aren’t hard to track. A better way to read the book is to let it flow instead of trying to keep tabs on the period.
One aspect I love about the book is the theme of intergenerational trauma and its impact on people. The hatred for all Germans after the Nazi brutality, the mistrust of Cubans, and ordinary people trying to pick up the broken pieces of their lives, suffering from trauma that wasn’t even theirs, to begin with.
While I admire the research behind the book, I couldn’t understand much of the Cuban track. The writing assumes readers are knowledgeable of the topic to fill the gaps. Though I know enough of WWII and Berlin history, my knowledge of Cuba’s past isn’t that great.
The heavy and sad undertones are so consistent that it’s hard to read more than a few pages without feeling overwhelmed or lost. Even the lighthearted moments are tinged with melancholy and awareness that some devastating is around the corner.
This is a book I want to love, but I can only say I like it in parts. The ending is vague (not my favorite kind), leaving me dissatisfied about the plot but relieved that I could finally complete it.

To summarize, The Night Travelers is an overwhelming historical fiction that spans four generations of women and their lives in the backdrop of wars. This book is not for everyone (contains triggers).
Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Delighted to include this title in the January edition of Novel Encounters, my regular column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction, for the Books section of Zoomer magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

The Night Travelers is a multi-generational story of 4 strong women who survive Nazism, Communism, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Ally, Lilith, Nadine, and Luna show us how the strength of a mother’s love can change the course of our lives.

I loved how the story was broken up into the different time periods and then the time periods were all connected by the women’s stories. The courage all of these characters exhibited was extraordinary—and felt realistic for the time periods they lived in. While this book was historical fiction that starts out around World War II, I liked that it connected into Cuba and some of maybe lesser known historical events.

Overall, an interesting book! I would recommend it to historical fiction readers or those that really enjoy stories of various generations of families.

4.5 stars/5

A tour de force in three parts about women, their children, and the impossible decisions that war and its animosities impose on families, tearing them asunder. Well researched and thoughtful, there remains a hollow gutting of normality that plagues the generations. The young through their innocence and lack of history; the old through their memories and culpability — whether accepted or rejected. This book weaves together different historic events that are largely unknown or ignored making one gasp at how quickly revolution, peaceful or contentious, affects lives all over the world with the careless efficiency of dominos falling. This is not a cheerful book, nor an easy one, But it will make you question political movements and their tangential costs to people just trying to live normal lives.

The Night Travelers is a new and interesting twist on the World War 2, flee from persecution story. It is a story of saving and protecting your child. And it is a story of confusion about your identity while knowing that confusion stems from the only method of keeping you alive and safe. Ally, Lillith, and Nadine are three generations of women that have each made a hard sacrifice in order to keep their child safe. Ally sent Lillith away to keep her from Nazi persecution; Lillith sent Nadine away to keep her safe during the upheaval of Cuba; Nadine cut herself from her adoptive parents, the only parents she ever knew in order to guarantee an opportunity for a future. Decades later Nadine finds herself in Berlin facing the ghosts of her mother and grandmother in ways she never expected. Working with her daughter, she hopes to finally piece her history together enough to fully understand who she is, and why Ally and Lillith made the choice they did.

The Night Travelers by Armando Lucas Correa tells the stories of four generations of women and their experiences of love, loss and war. Through it all they never give up hope. The connected plots of this novel can definitely be described as sweeping and all of Correa's characters are memorable. Beginning in 1931 Berlin, Ally Keller is alone and frightened when she gives birth to a mix race daughter. Ally does her best to keep Lilith hidden as Nazism and Aryan purity rages. Ultimately she sends Lilith away to save her life. Many years later Lilith must make her own unthinkable decision to save her own daughter, Nadine. It is Nadine's daughter Luna that puts the puzzle pieces together and reveals a remarkable secret. Correa's writing is beautiful and The Night Travelers is an exceptional story.

Thanks to Netgalley, Atria Books and the author, Armando Lucas Correa for an e-ARC of this moving historical fiction novel. I couldn't put this book down. Spanning many decades and telling the heart-wrenching stories of four generations of women, this novel was at times difficult to read and yet impossible not to.

I enjoyed the multiple viewpoints, starting with Ally in Germany during World War II and then her daughter Lilith sent on a ship to Cuba to escape the war only to experience Communist Cuba where she is forced to send her own daughter, Nadine on her own to New York to escape once again... And finally to Luna, the youngest of the family of mothers and daughters who helps tell the stories of the amazingly strong women she came from.

I loved this novel and would highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

I love multigenerational novels with dual timelines so I was excited to read this one. I liked how the beginning of each chapter was labeled with not only the date and year, but how much time had passed since the last chapter. I wish every author did that!

The Night Travelers starts out pretty strong with Ally’s story but unfortunately kind of meanders quite a bit after that. It was hard to connect with any of the characters because there’s no emotion in the writing. It felt like reading a newspaper or encyclopedia entry - very flat. There’s also a lot of characters mentioned and described that are completely unnecessary and never mentioned again.

I wish the story would have started out with Luna opening a box of stuff that once belonged to Ally, her great grandmother, before starting in on Ally’s story. Nadine’s section of the book could have been cut out completely.

Without giving spoilers, I did NOT like the little twist near the end. Was it ever fully explained? How was it pulled off? I don’t care enough to go back and reread.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. I made it to 38%, but I’m going to have to put it down. This story is not holding my attention. I believe this is more of an issue with the reader than it is with the novel as I love historical fiction, and I’ve read another book by this author which I did enjoy. I am currently under the weather, and I think this content is too involved for me to focus on at this time. I look forward to trying this book at another time.

I did like this story which followed generations of women dealing with the worst it seemed that life offered. Starting with Ally Keller, in Berlin in the early 1930's, we find a talented poetess who falls for a young Negro musician and becomes pregnant. She knows with the coming of Nazism and the pure Germanic book goal that her mixed race daughter will be shunned and later on sterilized. In order to stop this she sends her daughter with a Jewish family to Cuba. Lilith, the child grows, and then comes the Cuban Communist Revolution where her husband is imprisoned and shot for being a pilot. Her daughter, Nadine, is caught up in the turmoil and her mother, Lilith makes a decision that has Nadine arriving in New York and being adopted by a German Family.

In 1988, Nadine grown to be a scientist living in Germany, dedicated herself to finding the remains of the dead and giving them an honorable and proper burial. She shies away from learning about her own family, She also has a daughter, Luna, who eventually will find the shocking truth and betrayal that led to the tragedies faced by her great grandmother, grandmother, and mother,

The story flips back and forth between time periods but the chapters are clearly marked. My only qualm with the story was its excessive wordiness which often included repetition, but this was a worthwhile story that once again brought home the concept of powerful mother love.

Thank you to Armando Lucas Correa, Atria Books, and NetGalley for a copy of this book due out January 15, 2023.

This is my first book by this author. I thought it was a well written book. It takes place from Nazi Germany to Havana, Cuba and back to Germany. It’s a bit of a heartbreaking story and a little depressing at times.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

I thoroughly enjoyed this historical fiction! The multi generational story was so endearing, and I loved each character. What a great story of loss and survival.

The Night Travelers by Armando Lucas Correa was a lovely, unique family tale that centered around the experiences of one family during World War II. Specifically, this book looked at the stories of four women, Ally, Lilith, Nadine, and Luna - mothers and their daughters, over time. Each endured much tragedy and demonstrated her own form of strength. This was a unique WWII book in that it did not only take place in Europe but also in Cuba and the United States over the course of the 1930s-2015. The writing was lovely, and I will definitely continue to read this author's books.

I did rate this book a bit lower because the women's stories were so parallel and repetitive that it was a bit predictable/boring to read. Also, some of the Cuban history was hard to follow. This is definitely a book to get lost in, so I do recommend it for those who enjoy historical fiction.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

The first night traveler is a little girl named Lilith, whose mother takes her out to play in the dark so that no one will know that she has a daughter who is not white. Her mother Ally is a poet of some repute, and the poems she writes in 1930s Berlin with play an important part in the story of Lilith and the other girls who will be sent away from their mothers in order to save their lives. Ally sends Lilith to Cuba with a Jewish family because there is no way a.non-white child can survive in Germany. Later, Lilith will have to make a similar choice, as does her daughter, Nadine. It's a frightening spiral of violence and danger, each element different but the girls still threatened.

This is the first novel I've read by Armando Lucas Correa and it's a strong historical novel, well-written with an interesting twist. What brings it out is that the story does not just take place in Germany under the Nazis but also in Cuba and New York before returning to Berlin. The impact of Ally's desperate action to save her daughter reverberates through the generations.

4.5 stars

An intricately told tale spanning four generations of women impacted by war, loss, and distance. Beginning in the 1930s, we meet Ally and her daughter Lilith, whose father is a Black musician. They live in Nazi Germany and racial hygiene laws dictate that Lilith should be sterilized due to her status as a “mischling” - a person of mixed racial heritage. Through a series of events, Lilith is able to escape Germany, landing in Cuba with her new Jewish parents and growing up through the Batista leadership transitioning into Fidel Castro’s regime. She learns a new language and develops strong friendships, one that turns into a beautiful marriage. Later, Lilith makes the unbearable choice to send her own child, Nadine, away to stay safe, this time to New York City.

Everything comes full circle when Nadine’s adoptive mother is tried for war crimes and the family returns to Germany. Nadine’s daughter Luna is raised in post-Berlin wall Germany, a writer just like her great grandmother Ally. The stories and connections unwind over the course of the book, beautifully rendered to convey decades of history both personal and well-documented.

The era of Lilith growing up in Cuba read most clearly for me. I loved the depiction of the tropical setting, the difference in assimilation for Lilith and her adoptive parents, and the building tensions in Cuba as the years progressed. I can’t imagine the choices the mothers in this novel made, but while the theme of loss and separation are woven throughout, the overall feeling of love permeates it all.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books in exchange for my honest review. Out January 10, 2023

Thank you, Simon & Shuster, and NetGalley for offering this remarkable book. It's a difficult one to review. It's exceptionally well written and every character is brought to life. All of their stories are tragic, brave and terribly heartbreaking. The descriptions of all the places in Berlin, Cuba and Queens New York make one feelas though they are there. I can still smell the lavender which is a thread throughout the story as well as the red gabardine coat. I loved the book but cried through most of it. From Naziism to Communism the book takes you on a complex journey through four generations with four exceptional women who give the story heart. It's an
emotional journey of love and loss with several twists that I never saw coming. I highly recommend this book but must remind the reader to have a box of tissues nearby.

This is my first book by Armando Lucas Correa, and I'm so glad I found it. This is another excellent piece of historical fiction that ticks all the boxes as it follows four generations of women from Nazi Germany to the Cuban Revolution, and to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1980s Germany.

Mother/daughter relationships are at the heart of the novel with each mother making difficult - heartbreaking - decisions to help save their respective daughters. The story is told in very linear fashion as we follow as each woman and then her daughter as they struggle to find their place in societies that are not always welcoming.

As always, I loved the historical aspects of this well-researched story. From the eugenics program undertaken by Hitler to "cleanse" society to the SS St. Louis that transported hundreds of Jewish families to Cuba and potential freedom, only to be sent back to Germany after only a handful are allowed to remain in Cuba. The Cuban Revolution also plays heavily in the story as tragedy plays out over the years of unrest and violence.

I especially liked the perspectives and personalities of Lilith as she grows into herself in Cuba and her granddaughter Luna, who is raised in Germany after mother Nadine moves there when her adoptive mother is arrested in the US and tried as a Nazi war criminal. As the story unfolds, we learn more and more the women, both past and present.

I did find the ending to be long and drawn out and some emotional depth lacking. But the historical aspects of this story were fascinating. I would definitely like to go back and check out Correa's other stories, The German Girl and The Daughter's Tale to compare them all.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for the digital ARC of the Night Travelers.

The Night Travelers struck me profoundly, leaving me in awe of the gorgeous writing and vivid descriptions. The stories of four generations of women are insightful, believable, riveting, crushing and hopeful. The women are very different yet they share deep unbreakable ties. The importance of family, mothers' love and perseverance resonate throughout. Though times change, people are people. Author Armando Lucas Correa writes about the horrors of war and depravity but also describes deep kindness and sacrifice.

In Berlin in 1931, Ally gives birth to a beloved daughter of mixed race. She quickly discovers the depths of hatred Nazis have for "mischlings", even though nearly pure enough for them. Lilith is intelligent and bright yet that is less important than 100% Aryan racial purity. Ally and Lilith's lives are spent in hiding and anxiety as one footstep can spell disaster. Ally is forced to make an unspeakable decision to save her daughter.

In 1958 Lileth has been in Havana for several years and her memories of her childhood grow faint, though she feels a connection to her mother from Berlin. She is enmeshed in the Cuban culture and has fallen in love with Martin. However, the Revolution changes everything for all three as well as the entire country.

Nadine becomes a scientist and works in Berlin at a very interesting job. Family lines have come full circle and Nadine's daughter Luna digs into her past as she is keen to discover more about her mother, grandmother and great grandmother. What she discovers is heartbreaking, gut wrenching and beautiful.

Historical Fiction fans searching for THE read to become immersed in, let it be The Night Travelers. It is just...there are no words. "By night we are the same colour." Indeed.

My sincere thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this astoundingly good book, one which will stand out in my mind for a very long time. There are 5 stars...and then there are FIVE stars!

I can’t even put into words how much this book GUTTED me. I have never cried so much for characters in a book (and Little Women is my favorite book if that gives you any reference)

This book really hit home for me because my great grandparents immigrated from Germany. I was picturing them throughout the book. I also grew up in South Florida with a lot of friends of Cuban descent. I would hear stories of their parents and grandparents Cuba.

This story was moving and authentic. I ached for the characters as if they were family. I cannot wait to see what else this author has coming. I know whatever he writes next I will have my Kleenex at the ready.

This is the third book I’ve read by this author, and he continues to bring history back to life in historically correct, heartbreaking full color. In this saga, we follow the lives of 4 generations of women who all must face a fight to survive, yet keep a strong will and positive outlook. Armando bases his plots on historical events, making his books so much more meaningful. For anyone interested in the struggles experienced by those who’ve survived WW II, dictatorships, or fascism, this is the author for you.
I sincerely thank Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is January 10, 2023.