3.79 AVERAGE

emotional slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A
emotional informative reflective slow-paced

I was drawn in by the gorgeous cover, but was kept in by the sweeping story. Historical fiction can be hit or miss for me, but I found myself getting more into the book as I read on. It's a story of loss and while it took me a few tries to get into the book, I found that it was beautifully written. The story of mothers who are trying to protect their daughters struck a chord and left me aching for more.

I'm going to be recommending this to all my friends who love historical fiction. It's well worth a read.

I was provided a free copy of this book through Netgalley.
emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced
challenging emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

“By night, we’re all the same color.”

The Night Travelers is a gorgeous historical fiction book that focuses on four women in four different time periods and countries. The Night Travelers deals with 1930s Berlin, 1945–WWII, 1950s Cuba during their own revolution, and then 1970s —- Correa’s writing was absolutely amazing, immersive and even though we were jumping around to different time periods and countries—the storyline was easy to keep track of. Liliths storyline was one I connected to the most, at the beginning we see her as a young seven year old girl and we continue to follow her throughout her whole life. This multigenerational story makes us ask the question: do our ancestors contribute to who we are as people? 

I discussed this book with my bookclub and we loved loved loved it! Will definitely be picking up more Correa’s books in the future. 
adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

I might give this one 4.5. I love that it is translated from Spanish and that the author edited it to convey what he wanted in English. He is so delightful to talk with and I’m grateful I got to discuss this with him and @bookfriendsbookclub. 

This is an interesting, under the radar pick. It begins in Germany during WWII with Ally Keller, a poet who has a daughter Lilith, fathered by a black German musician. When he disappears, she moves on with her life with the help of a professor. When her child is declared a bastard and doesn’t meet the Aryan purity, she sends her to Cuba with a Jewish couple they know seeking refuge. As Lilith grows up, she marries the son of a president, who becomes a target when Castro takes leadership, sending her young daughter Nadine to NYC through the Catholic Church. Nadine ends up back in Europe when the only mother she’s known is arrested. 

So many generations of trauma from a Cuban perspective at times (from his family’s memories). Even though it covers many hard topics, it is beautifully written and our bookclub loved it (it got all 4.5 and 5 votes). It’s so interesting in how it covers these memories relating to this time period of WWII in Cuba and how these generations of people hid and lost their families. 

Titled The Night Travelers, originally because Ally and Lilith couldn’t travel safely during the day (because her hair gave her away as being black and less-than), they felt safer at night. Ally wrote a poem mentioned throughout the book likewise called The Night Travelers. And I loved how each generation carried this through as night travelers.

Night travelers are full of light. —RUMI
“the night belongs to us, to me and you. The night is ours.” Ch 2
“she, who had always been a night traveler. By night, we’re all the same color,” Ch 18
“She had abandoned her daughter to save her. We give up what we love. We forget as the only means of salvation. It was her daughter’s turn to be the night traveler, just as she had once been.” Ch 20
“This was when the little girl realized: she was destined to live in the night. She and her grandmother Lilith were daughters of the moon.” Ch 26

“She’s realized I’ve spent my whole life forgetting, ever since I was born, and now she wants to remember everything.” Ch 26

“There’s no better way to welcome someone than with books.” Ch 26

“You had to be born so that I could understand my mother.” Ch 33

“Perhaps they’d left the world knowing that their lives weren’t as hopeless as they’d believed. “You can’t leave life carrying a heavy load,” she had heard her grandmother Ernestine say on more than one occasion. “To get to the other side, you must travel as lightly as possible.” Ch 35

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

The Night Travelers is a story of generations of a family. It is a story of how a ripple can cause an affect for the future generations. Ally, Lillith, Nadine and Luna are bound by a bond but they need to unravel their story to start living or letting go.

This novel is phenomenal and fantastic. The characters are so well scoped that my heart hurted for them. Excellently researched we get to see a Nazi Germany, a conflicted Cuba, Germany split and reunified. It spans generations of family as well as families who try to help them. Some of these people are traumatized by their own losses and some have committed crimes.

Intergenerational trauma is very real and the author has captured the nuances of it perfectly in this novel. It was a very hard book to read for me and it's been a while that cried after a book was done. The pain of these characters and their lack of emotions makes so much sense with the trauma that they have suffered. Being a trauma survivor myself, I hurt for these women. The closure that they get at the end is beautiful but at the same time sad. This book will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you Atria Books, Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for this book.
emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No