Welcome to another Weekend Read post. My featured book this week is The Man She Had to Save by talented historical fiction author Catherine Hokin. Catherine has dropped by today to tell us what inspired her to write this story. So grab yourself a cuppa, get cosy and let’s get chatting to Catherine.

Blurb:

Spain, 1935: I’m shaking as I watch my brother emerge from the truck, his hands bound behind his back. And when my lover gives the order for him to be executed, my heart breaks. My worst nightmare has come true. To save my brother, I must betray the man I love…

When Vivi arrives in Madrid, she is captivated by its heat and colour, a world away from the grey of her life as a lonely newlywed back in Berlin. But her diplomat husband and beloved brother Christian are here for one reason only: to bring the Nazi regime to Spain, and to destroy everything that stands in their path.

When Vivi is caught in a bombing raid, she is thrown unexpectedly into the arms of Emilio, a member of the militia. As she gets to know him and his love for his country, his passion inspires her, and her world changes overnight. And as he stares at her with his warm brown eyes, her heart races in her chest, knowing she is truly being seen for the first time in years…

But falling in love with Emilio is dangerous. Franco and his Nazi allies are closing in on the resistance in Madrid, and it’s only a matter of time before Emilio is discovered. Vivi does everything she can to protect him, but she knows time is running out.

When her worst fears come true and Emilio captures her brother, Vivi must decide where her loyalty lies. Should she betray her lover to save her family? Or will she choose love above all else? And once the war is over, can she live with the consequences?

Purchase Links: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-She-Had-Save-heartbreaking-ebook/dp/B0GX2ZWNFM

Welcome to my blog, Catherine. Can you tell us what inspired you to write this book?

My latest novel, The Man She Had to Save, is set in Madrid and Berlin and takes place during the Spanish Civil War which began 90 years ago in 1936.

  A German connection runs through all my novels. Nazi Germany actively supported General Franco throughout the Civil War and one of the key characters in this book is a Luftwaffe pilot. Another connection between them is a sense of place. My regular readers will know that I have strong ties to Berlin but I am also a great lover of Spain – my daughter is a fluent Spanish speaker and lived in Madrid and I really hope I’ve brought a strong sense of the country’s turbulent history to the story.

  So why this book? The truth is, I was always going to write it.

  I’ve been fascinated with the Spanish Civil War for a long time. What I didn’t realise, however, until I started to do my research was how little I actually understood it. My first exposure to the subject was through reading George Orwell’s memoir, Homage to Catalonia. I was young and idealistic when I read it, like many of the young men and women who went from across Europe to join in the war. I thought going to fight against fascism in Spain was very romantic. I was also taught at school that Franco – the general who led the military coup and won – was a ‘benevolent dictator’. Neither of those things, of course, were true. War is anything but romantic, and Franco was a tyrant. And what I hadn’t comprehended was the depth of the repression and fear that were the hallmarks of the war and his regime.

  I chose my characters very carefully to represent the different voices involved in the conflict. Vivi, my protagonist, and her brother Christian – the Luftwaffe pilot who she desperately wants to think well of despite the evidence – come from a German family with deep ties to the Nazi regime. Vivi doesn’t share their beliefs but it isn’t until she comes to Madrid, as an unhappily married diplomat’s wife, that she is able to find her own path and join the fight for a better world. And it is through her newly opened eyes – and the love that she finds as she finally escapes the life she hates – that the reader comes to understand how Franco’s regime is determined to brutally rewrite Spain’s history with no care for the truth.

    The Man She Had to Save is a book filled with secrets and lies because that reflects the Spain in which it was set. So many bodies are still lost to unmarked graves, so many of the country’s memories are still battling for the light; so many losses and atrocities will never be publicly acknowledged. The Civil War and the state-mandated forgetting that followed it has cast a long shadow over what is a wonderful, vibrant country.

  There is a romance at the heart of the story but I’m no longer romantic about the civil war. I loved writing this book, I shed a lot of tears researching it and the present was as loud as the past. Because I couldn’t help but think that – in a time when truth-telling becomes increasingly the preserve of those with the deepest pockets and the shallowest reserves of humanity – what happened in Spain might just hold lessons for us all.  

Your books sounds poignant and fascinating, Catherine. I live in Spain and am aware of the brutality of Franco’s regime. This must have been quite a story to write It’s definitely on my tbr. I hope it soars for you

Meet Catherine

Author Bio:

Catherine Hokin writes novels set primarily in Berlin and Eastern Europe, covering the period from 1933 up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and dealing with the long shadows left by the Second World War. The Man She Had to Save which is published on 15 July 2026 is her fourteenth book for Bookouture. She lives in Glasgow with her American husband and loves the cinema, travelling and music designed to make your ears bleed.

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/cathokin

https://www.instagram.com/cathokinauthor

https://www.catherinehokin.com

More of Catherine’s books