This book was incredibly interesting to me, because up until now this was an event in history that I was unfamiliar with. It's hard to imagine how much we still don't know about times in history that are actually incredibly well documented - but there is still so much for us to learn. 
 I found the book itself to be well written, although I also found it very hard to connect with any of the main characters. I think part of the reason for the disconnect was that I expected much more of it to be connected to the Rosenthal's time in Germany and aboard the St. Louis, however there is a great deal of it that concerns their time spent in Cuba. Although I'm sure this particular account was incredibly fictionalized, I know that it also speaks to the principle of what happened to those that boarded the ill-fated St. Louis. 
 (Also, a great deal of the book concerns the political climate of Cuba following World War II, and this is something I was almost entirely unfamiliar with - obviously this is no fault of the author or his storytelling, but I did find it hard to connect with. However - it is important to note that this does make me interested in learning more about this timeframe of Cuba's history.) 
 Overall, if you've read a lot of historical fiction concerning the era of World War II, I believe this is a good book to add to your repertoire - but you might have a hard time connecting to the characters presented throughout (particularly those in the present day timeline - I was much more invested in the stories of the characthers directly impacted by the St. Louis).