"Remember Me", by Mario Escobar

                                                   

                                                     A Spanish Civil War Novel

     
1936-1939

The Spanish Civil War is referred to as one of the bloodiest wars of the twentieth century. Mr. Escobar’s novelization of the events is told by Marco, a fictional survivor and one of the 500 children that were relocated via ship to Mexico to escape the violence.

At what cost do you protect your child?

“Remember Me” is the story of the Alcalde family and focusses mainly on the children: Marco, Isabel and Ana who traveled across the sea without their parents only to be trapped in a country far from their homeland. Based on true events and documents we follow the siblings through their ordeal. Life was not easy, they had to endure hunger, beating and even kidnapping...their overall situation was horrible. The Alcade family represents the lives of thousands of families who were separated ... many children trying to survive alone and many parents suffering from having to let them go.

The story is told in three parts: the first deals with the Civil War in Spain, the second the children evacuation to Mexico and the last part covers the life in Spain under Franco’s rules. At the end of the book we have the author’s clarifications of the factual events from those needed to fit into his narrative and the final chapter gives a timeline of significant events during that period. The research is outstanding.

Mr. Escobar writing style is simple; his fluency of words and charged phrases will strike a chord in your heart, it did for me.

This is a great historical fiction

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher Thomas Nelson via Netgalleys the opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.