The Night Travelers: Four Women, Four Different Times in History, One Journey

The Night Travelers by Armando Lucas Correa is a historical fiction which features four generations of women and three time periods as they experience love, loss and hope. The story begins in Berlin, 1931 as the rise of Nazism sweeps through Germany, Ally Keller gives birth to a mixed-race daughter, Lilith and hides her from the world. When time runs out, Ally puts together a desperate plan to save her daughter’s life. Havana, 1958, Lilith is now an adult, finds herself excited for her future with her husband, Martin. As the fires of revolution grow, Lilith finds herself facing an impossible choice, as her own mother did, in order to save her own daughter, Nadine.  Berlin, 1989 as the Berlin Wall falls, Nadine is now a dedicated scientist who has spent her life avoiding the truth about her family. When her own daughter, Luna, begins to uncover the family history, it will be Luna faced with an uncomfortable truth in their family’s past and their place in history.  

The Night Travelers is my first book by Armando Lucas Correa. I can see why he has a reputation for sweeping historical fiction with depth of the human stories we often forget. It is a story about four women, separated by time but united by sacrifice. They each embark on journeys of self-discovery which is forged by the power of a mother’s love. It is a wonderful story of the interconnectedness of history and that history is more than just dates and events. It is the individuals who lived and sacrificed during troubling times. It is also a story that details the disgusting things people have inflicted on others and if we are not careful, we will repeat the same. Overall, I enjoyed The Night Travelers. It is the type of historical fiction which leads one to further research events in more depth than what is highlighted in the story. To me, that is a feature of great historical fiction. I highly recommend The Night Travelers. 

The Night Travelers is available in hardcover