Refugee

Gratz alternates chapters between three timelines without ever using chapter titles to tell you which child you're following. You have to figure it out from context. Why do you think he made this choice? How does it affect the reading experience?

Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud each have a different survival strategy. What is each child's strategy, and how does their strategy reflect their specific situation and personality?

Mahmoud says his goal is to 'be a ghost.' By the end of the novel, he has changed this. What happened to change his mind, and was the change worth the cost?

The United States turned away the MS St. Louis in 1939. In 2015, many European countries closed their borders to Syrian refugees. What do these two moments have in common, and what does Gratz want us to understand from the comparison?

Isabel's trumpet is lost during the crossing, but Gratz writes that she still carries the music 'inside her.' What does this mean? Can an object that's gone still be part of who you are?

Gratz wrote this book in present tense — 'Josef feels,' not 'Josef felt.' Why is this choice especially important for a novel about refugees?

Mahmoud makes the choice to give baby Hana to strangers. Was this the right choice? Can there be a 'right choice' in this situation, or are some situations morally impossible?

The MS St. Louis passengers sent a telegram to President Roosevelt asking for help. He never replied. Gratz presents this as a historical fact, without commentary. Why does he choose not to comment? Is the silence itself a judgment?

Gratz shows three different kinds of water crossing: a luxury ocean liner, a homemade raft, and an overloaded rubber dinghy. How does each crossing reflect the specific historical and economic circumstances of the people making it?

The wet-foot/dry-foot policy meant that a Cuban refugee who reached the shore could stay, but one intercepted in the water had to go back. How does Gratz use this policy to show the absurdity — and cruelty — of certain immigration rules?

Josef's father was a doctor before Dachau. After Dachau, he cannot function as an adult. What does this tell us about what the camps did to people — and why does Gratz establish this early in the novel?

Lito has already been a refugee once when he boards the raft with Isabel's family. How does his previous experience of displacement shape his understanding of what is happening? Does experience make displacement easier or harder to survive?

Gratz based all three timelines on real historical events. After you finish the novel, read the author's note. How does knowing which details are factual change your experience of the fiction?

Each of the three timelines involves a child being forced to be more adult than they should be. In what ways does each child lose or preserve their childhood across the novel?

The convergence at the end of the novel shows Josef's choice in 1939 affecting Mahmoud's life in 2015. Do you find this connection plausible? Does it matter whether it is literally possible or whether it works as a literary structure?

Mahmoud chooses to be invisible to avoid danger. But the novel suggests that his invisibility also has costs — not just to him, but to the other refugees he does not help when helping would reveal him. Is his choice selfish, or is it rational? Is there a difference?

Isabel is the youngest of the three protagonists and the only girl. Does her age and gender affect how she experiences and responds to the crisis differently from Josef and Mahmoud?

Otto Schiendick, the Nazi agent on the MS St. Louis, pursues personal grudges against individual Jewish passengers rather than executing some grand ideological plan. What does this suggest about how ordinary cruelty enables extraordinary atrocity?

Consider the people who help the three children: Captain Schroeder on the St. Louis, the German family who takes in Mahmoud. What do these characters have in common? What does it cost them to help?

Gratz chose to write from the perspectives of three children rather than adults. Why is the child's perspective particularly effective for this subject matter? What would be lost with an adult narrator?

The novel has been challenged in schools by parents who believe its political message is inappropriate for children. What is the political message? Do you think there is a version of this subject that would be 'apolitical'? Should there be?

Compare how the three host nations — Cuba, the United States, and Germany — respond to the refugees in each timeline. What factors seem to determine whether a nation offers refuge or closes its borders?

How does Gratz use music — specifically Isabel's trumpet — as a symbol across the novel? What does music represent that other objects or skills don't?

Mahmoud's family is Muslim and Syrian. Gratz is an American author writing from outside this experience. How does the novel handle Mahmoud's religion and culture? Are there moments where it feels authentic? Are there moments where it feels like an outsider's projection?

The novel ends with Mahmoud choosing to be seen. What specifically does 'being seen' mean in this context? How is visibility both a risk and a claim to humanity?

Gratz's Author's Note says that the crisis of refugees is ongoing and that more Josefs, Isabels, and Mahmouds are crossing borders right now. What obligation, if any, does a reader have after finishing a book like this?

Compare Refugee to The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Both deal with Jewish children in Nazi-era Europe. How does Gratz's approach — parallel timelines, active present tense, child as protagonist — differ from Frank's diary form? Which communicates the historical reality more effectively for modern readers?

The three children never meet. Is this a weakness of the parallel structure, or does it make the novel's argument more powerful? What would be gained or lost if the timelines literally overlapped?

Gratz shows us people who help refugees and people who turn them away. In each case, the decision seems to hinge less on morality than on fear and self-interest. Do you agree? Is fear a legitimate reason to turn someone away?

If you were writing a fourth timeline for this novel — set today, in 2026 — where would the crisis be, who would the child be, and what impossible choice would they face? What does the fact that this question is answerable tell us about the world?