Salt to the Sea

These pages contain 12 short sections, beginning with Florian’s.

At sunrise, the group joins “a massive procession of people and carts…as far as the eye can see” (98). While Joana attempts to help the injured, Eva investigates the crowd. Joana devises a plan to masquerade young Emilia as the dead Latvian woman whose papers she holds. Florian utilizes the SS courier pass he forged to impress the checkpoint guard but resists claiming association with the others. Before they can proceed, a plane appears, and “a cluster of human beings…exploded with a bomb” (109).

In a harrowing scene, Ingrid, who has bandaged her eyes to appear injured, pretends to see a soldier’s scarf to avoid arrest. The resourceful shoe poet masterfully distracts the young Nazi at the checkpoint by offering to repair his shoes. In Gotenhafen, Alfred continues to weave tails of grandeur in letters to Hannelore while stripping the ship of furniture and décor in preparation for the voyage. Joana discovers that the drawing from her cousin is missing from her suitcase.

Florian sneaks away from the group and hides behind the organ pipes in a nearby cathedral, where the others eventually congregate to sleep while the lagoon freezes.