The German Girl

Anna is the novel’s second major protagonist. She is a 12-year-old girl living in New York City in 2014 with her mother. Although she has never met her father, who passed away in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, she speaks to a photo of him every night and yearns to learn more about him and his family’s history. When her Great Aunt Hannah sends a letter inviting Anna out to Cuba to learn more about her father and their story, Anna is thrilled. Half of the novel is narrated through Anna’s perspective, as she learns about Hannah’s story and develops a relationship with a local Cuban boy named Diego. Her relationship with Diego closely resembles Hannah’s relationship with Leo; just as Hannah and Leo ran around Berlin and the St. Louis, Anna and Diego run around Cuba. Indeed, Hannah and Anna share many similarities: They both lost their fathers, and both of them have mothers who are cloistered, inward, and often depressive. Throughout the novel, Anna grows through learning about Hannah’s life and her father’s story, and from her encounters exploring Havana with Diego.

The final parallel between Anna and Hannah stems from kisses. In Anna’s final chapter, she shares her first kiss with Diego. In Hannah’s final chapter, she imagines recovering her lost connection with Leo, saying, “I bring my face up to your still-warm one and at last give you the kiss I promised for the day we met again on our imaginary island” (331). This parallel suggests that Anna will go on to live the life that Hannah has always wished for.

Alma has a strong influence on Hannah’s life and identity as a German citizen. It is Hannah’s mother who insists that Hannah see herself as a German citizen, not as someone inferior or as a refugee. Hannah’s mother is proud—she wears makeup and elegant clothes on the day she is forced to evacuate her own apartment. Hannah often refers to her as a “Goddess” (128). Alma is capable of great gusts of enthusiasm and energy, and she loves music and cinema. At the same time, Alma is prone to depressive states of mind in which she withdraws into her bedroom for prolonged periods of time. These periods of withdrawal are so common that Hannah often fears that she will become an orphan.

Anna’s mother is a literature professor at Columbia University. Like Alma, she is prone to depressive states. After her husband is lost in the September 11 attacks, she refuses to mourn or to fully accept the loss, but five years later, once the loss becomes real, she retreats to her bedroom, where she dwells in the past. Like Hannah, Anna fears becoming orphaned by her mother’s depression. However, just like Alma, Anna’s mother is capable of springing to her feet and becoming full of life again, as she does after receiving Hannah’s letter from Cuba.