The best books about the Spanish Civil War

In Spain in Our Hearts, acclaimed author and journalist Adam Hochschild tells the story of the Spanish Civil War through the eyes of a cast of American and British expatriates who experienced the conflict firsthand. From authors Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell, who chronicled the impact of the war in their writing, to college students who took up arms to help defend the Spanish Republic, and a Texas oilman who made a tidy profit from selling fuel to General Franco, the experiences of this cast of characters paint a vivid portrait of life in Spain from 1936 to 1939.

A vivid and authoritative account of the Spanish Civil War and the rise to prominence of General Franco.

No modern conflict has inflamed the passions of both civilians and intellectuals as much as the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39. Burned into our collective historical consciousness, it not only prefigured the imminent Second World War but also ushered in a new and horrific form of warfare that would come to define the twentieth century. At the same time it echoed the revolutionary aspirations of millions of Europeans and Americans after the painful years of the Great Depression.

Drawing on newly discovered material from the Spanish, Russian and German archives, Antony Beevor's account narrates the origins of the Civil War and its violent and dramatic course from the coup d'etat in July 1936 through the savage fighting of the next three years which ended in catastrophic defeat for the Republicans in 1939.

 He successfully unravels the complex political and regional forces that played such an important part in the origins and history of the war.

What was it that roused left-wing sympathizers from all over the world to fight against Franco between 1936 and 1939? Why did the British and US governments refuse to intervene? And why did the Republican cause collapse so violently?

 Hugh Thomas's classic account offers a full and vivid analysis of this passionate struggle where fascism and democracy, communism and Catholicism were at stake - and which was as much an international war as a Spanish one.

Orwell’s first-hand account of the brutal conditions of the Spanish Civil War.

 With passion and clarity, he describes the bright hopes and cynical betrayals of that chaotic episode: the revolutionary euphoria of Barcelona, the courage of ordinary Spanish men and women he fought alongside, the terror and confusion of the front, his near-fatal bullet wound and the vicious treachery of his supposed allies.

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Spending the years of the Spanish Civil War as a reporter for the North American Newspaper Alliance, author Ernest Hemingway had a firsthand view of the experiences of Spanish citizens, as well as the native and foreign fighters, who risked their lives during the war. In For Whom the Bell Tolls, considered one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, Hemingway examines the experience of war, brutality, and the value of human life through the story of American volunteer fighter Robert Jordan.

In a Spain on the eve of war, one family is infiltrated by a revolutionary artist and his half-sister, who will change the course of their lives forever. Thirty years later, Odelle climbs the stairs of London’s Skelton gallery to start a new job, with no idea of the forgotten treasures waiting for her, and the secrets they will reveal. Spanning three decades, and taking you from rural Spain at the start of the Spanish Civil War to London in the swinging sixties, Jessie Burton’s The Muse is a novel about art, love and the danger of obsession. 

Alberto is an old man. But he doesn't know how old - he remembers nothing before his arrival at an orphanage during the Spanish civil war.

 He rarely thinks about his missing childhood, but when seven-year-old Tino discovers his grandfather has never had a birthday party, never blown out candles on a birthday cake, never received a single birthday present, he's determined things should change. And so the two set out to find Alberto's birthday.

 Their search for the old man's memories takes them deep into the heart of Spain - a country that has pledged to forget its painful past.

The South is the award-winning novel that first introduced readers to Colm Tóibín.

 Katherine Proctor has dared to leave her family in Ireland and reach out for a new life. Determined to become an artist, she flees to Spain, where she meets Miguel, a passionate man who has fought for his own freedoms. They retreat to the quiet intensity of the mountains and begin to build a life together. But as Miguel’s past catches up with him, Katherine too is forced to re-examine her relationships: with her lover, her painting and the homeland she only thought she knew.

An extraordinary epic of love, family, and war set in the Basque town of Guernica before, during, and after its destruction by the German Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War.

In 1935, Miguel Navarro finds himself in conflict with the Spanish Civil Guard and flees the Basque fishing village of Lekeitio to make a new start in Guernica, the centre of Basque culture and tradition. Once there, he finds more than just a new life – he finds someone to live for. Miren Ansotegui is the charismatic and graceful dancer he meets and the two discover a love they believe nothing can destroy . . .

Rich in the history of the region, the Red Baron, the Luftwaffe and even Picasso make appearances in Guernica as the fate of the Navarro family is traced through the early decades of the twentieth century.

'A heart-rending yet life-affirming story' Daily Mail