
Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, 1944. ‘I have to go away, my darling. Please, be brave, stay alive, for me.’ Mama’s voice breaks. The little girl tries to stop the forbidden tears from falling, as the train takes her mother, and she is left alone… Berlin, six years later. Hanni Winter glows with pride as she shows her new husband around her first solo photography exhibition. But then she sees Freddy’s reaction. His face white, he can’t take his eyes off a photo of a young girl around four years old. ‘That’s Renny,’ he whispers, ‘my sister, she was taken by the Nazis…’ Hoping against hope to find his missing sister, Freddy draws Hanni into a dangerous trip across a war-torn wasteland. She wants so much to support the man she loves, but returning to Theresienstadt, the camp that still haunts her nightmares, is asking the impossible. When she steps through the black and white entrance archway, Hanni’s unbearable memories of the uprooted, trapped prisoners return immediately. And when her arrival brings her face to face with the man she ran from, has every step she made since her escape been in vain? With a precious child to protect, can Hanni find the strength to fight again, or will every hope for her future be lost forever? A heart-wrenching novel about love and courage in the face of terrible odds. Fans of The Alice Network, The Nightingale and The Tattooist of Auschwitz will need a box of tissues handy.
Author

Welcome to my author page and my novels, including the Hanni Winter series which is the newest of the pack. I write books set primarily in Berlin, covering the period from 1933 up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and dealing with the long shadows left by war. I am a story lover as well as a story writer and this period really fascinates me. Writing about it also means that I get to spend a lot of time in Berlin, which is my second favourite city - my favourite is Buenos Aires. I am from the North of England but now live very happily in Glasgow with my American husband. If I'm not at my desk you'll most probably find me in the cinema, or just follow the sound of very loud music. I'd love to hear from you and there are lots of ways you can find me, so jump in via my website https://www.catherinehokin.com/ or on my Cat Hokin FB page or on twitter @cathokin