Why does the Church come up so often in your work?
It was part of my research at the university. In Spain, the Catholic Church permeates everything, from art to mentality, through architecture and literature. I am an evangelical Christian. I specialize in the history of Protestantism in my country, but also in the Vatican, Religious Orders, and the papacy.
What were your goals in writing Children of the Stars? What are you hoping readers will take away with them after reading this novel?
First, calm. We live in turbulent times when politicians of every sign want to confront each other. History helps us to reflect on the consequences of shaking the hornet of ideologies. One of the characters in the book says that his true homeland is his family, the place where he always wants to return.
I love my country, I love my city, but I think the most important thing is to love my family, as my parents taught me. That is the only legacy, in addition to my faith, that I want to leave my children.
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Children of the Stars
Mario Escobar
Thomas Nelson
Historical
August 1942. Jacob and Moses Stein, two young Jewish brothers, are staying with their aunt in Paris amid the Nazi occupation. The boys’ parents, well-known German playwrights, have left the brothers in their aunt’s care until they can find safe harbor for their family. But before the Steins can reunite, a great and terrifying roundup occurs. The French gendarmes, under Nazi order, arrest the boys and take them to the Vélodrome d’Hiver—a massive, bleak structure in Paris where thousands of France’s Jews are being forcibly detained.
Jacob and Moses know they must flee in order to survive, but they only have a set of letters sent from the south of France to guide them to their parents. Danger lurks around every corner as the boys, with nothing but each other, trek across the occupied country. Along their remarkable journey, they meet strangers and brave souls who put themselves at risk to protect the children—some of whom pay the ultimate price for helping these young refugees of war.