Armando Lucas Correa joined us again at Shalom Sydney Jewish Writers Festival, this time to launch his latest book, The Night Travelers.

“To get to the other side, you must travel as lightly as possible.”

Four generations of women experience love, loss, war, and hope from the rise of Nazism to the Cuban Revolution and finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall in this sweeping novel from the bestselling author of the “timely must-read” (People) The German Girl.

Berlin, 1931: Ally Keller, a talented young poet, is alone and scared when she gives birth to a mixed-race daughter she names Lilith. As the Nazis rise to power, Ally knows she must keep her baby in the shadows to protect her against Hitler’s deadly ideology of Aryan purity. 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 has few memories of her mother or her childhood in Germany. Besides, she’s too 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: As 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. It takes her daughter, Luna, to encourage Nadine to uncover 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.

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.

Armando will be in conversation with author Suzanne Leal.

The book will also be available for purchase on the night by our official bookseller, Gertrude and Alice Bookstore.

Armando Lucas Correa is an award-winning journalist, editor, author, and the recipient of several awards from the National Association of Hispanic Publications and the Society of Professional Journalism. He is the author of the international bestseller The German Girl, which is now being published in thirteen languages. He lives in New York City with his partner and their three children. Visit ArmandoLucasCorrea.com.

Suzanne Leal’s debut novel for middle-grade readers, Running with Ivan, is a time travel adventure inspired by true events in wartime Europe.  Her novels for adult readers include The Teacher’s Secret and The Deceptions for which she won the Nib People’s Choice Prize and was shortlisted for the Davitt Awards and the Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award. An experienced facilitator at community, corporate and literary events, Suzanne is the host of Thursday Book Club, a relaxed, friendly book club connecting readers online.  The Watchful Wife, Suzanne’s new novel for adult readers, will be released in July 2023. www.suzanneleal.com

“The German Girl and The Daughter’s Tale are part of a trilogy that will conclude with The Night Travelers, and with that I will close the Holocaust cycle in my writing. In the three novels, I wanted to tackle historical events that have long been forgotten: the tragedy of the Saint Louis, the slaughter in Oradour-sur-Glane, and in the third book, Nazi Germany’s eugenics. All were stories involving Nazis that implicated countries like Cuba, the U.S., Canada, and France, all which in a way were also responsible for the fate of so many.”
— Armando Lucas Correa, Entertainment Weekly

Praise for the book

 “A stunning multigenerational story… the taut pacing keeps the pages flying. Readers will be deeply moved.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

​“Impressive…. [The novel’s] characters…are complex and singular; their interiors are richly drawn and illustrate how history unfolds in increasingly complex ways within individual psyches despite passing time and space. Readers will appreciate the emotional payoff and emerge from the novel with a satisfying sense of catharsis.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“a multigenerational saga that explores the legacy of war and revolution…A moving account of the tragic separation of families caught in the vise of history.”

—Booklist

​“Too many pages of history have been dampened by the tears of parents who selflessly separated from their children to give them a better life. Mine did.  Mr. Correa lovingly and accurately captures two such moments in his historical novel The Night Travelers.”

—Yvonne M. Conde, one of the children of the Operation Pedro Pan and author of Operation Pedro Pan-The Untold Exodus of 14,048 Cuban Children

​​“Reading Armando Lucas Correa reminds us of the true value of the small, colossal details that make literature great. A novel full of mysteries and endearing dialogues that expose and disarm us. “To get to the other side, you must travel as lightly as possible.” The Night Travelers is an enlightened novel full of unforgettable quotes.”

—Wendy Guerra, author of Revolution Sunday and I Was Never the First Lady

“Here, we have a writer with a recognizable and credible voice, in possession of his own style. Someone who has something important to say and does so with the language of a perfectionist and the gaze of premature maturity.”

—Andrés Reynaldo