Alan Fleishman

Frannie Potter Alan Fleishman

In 1937, a young American woman named Frannie Potter goes off to fight in the Spanish Civil War to save the Republic and keep her friend Marty alive. Together, these two friends join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a cohort of idealistic young American volunteers determined to fight fascism in the prelude to World War II. Marty's love for Frannie drives everything he does. She is why he came to Spain in the first place. Frannie loves him too but not in the romantic way he wants. Both of their young lives are stamped by the ferocious fighting, the atrocities, the heat, the cold, privations, and their undiminished passion for the Spanish people and their cause. Within a year, the flower of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade has been reduced to a husk. Marty and Frannie are among the few who have survived. They refuse to surrender to defeat, accepting their own likely fate. Then a Soviet major, with his eye on Frannie, changes everything.