On the other side by Marc Betriu

About the book

A true page-turner set during the Civil War with an intriguing plot full of plot twists

Year 1937. The war in Spain is on the way to stabilizing, dividing the country in half, while both sides develop intelligence and propaganda apparatus in an increasingly complex and dirty fight.

In this context, Mastreta, a man with a dark past, is forcibly recruited by the Republican intelligence service to carry out a delicate mission on national territory: to recover a film, in the hands of a Russian traitor, of the mass executions of national prisoners, the publication of which could have devastating effects for the republic in international public opinion.

In San Sebastian, taken months ago by the national troops, and under a fictitious identity, Mastreta aims to contact Frederika Heinz, a dangerous German agent sent by the Nazi government to mediate in obtaining the film. Both are forced to meet and get to know each other, while being a threat to each other, in a city emotionally punished by the war, where refugees, artists, stateless people and spies from both sides coincide, acting without consideration. Characters who live on the edge, and who are actors in an adventure where nothing is what it seems.

“She was cold, not necessarily in her manner, but in her essence. The report warned that this cultured and educated woman was capable of killing without the slightest hesitation a man with whom she had been having fun a few minutes before.”

Al otro lado delves into the Spanish Civil War to recount the strategies used by the different sides in order to win another war: the propaganda war.

The plot, marked by constant intrigue, revolves around a film containing footage of the massacre of national prisoners by the Republican side. Both sides of the conflict will do everything possible to obtain it.

Betriu pits two protagonists against each other, Mastreta and Frederika, who, marked by a turbulent past, find themselves immersed in a double game: none of their missions are what they seem.

«It may be that Moscow is interested in removing her [la película] “in the light just to piss off the anarchists. There are other wars within the war. Nobody plays these dirty games as well as the Russians.”

In Al otro lado, a narrator tells in the third person what happens in the north of Spain, so that sometimes the reader knows more than the characters themselves, although they always hide part of the information.

Marc Betriu divides the novel into three parts. The first, with a total of 27 chapters, begins with Mastreta, one of the protagonists, being recruited by some soldiers in a neighborhood of Tarragona and ends with him arriving in San Sebastian to continue his espionage mission.

The second part, consisting of 32 chapters, begins a couple of days later with the first meeting between Frederika, a German agent, and Mastreta. It ends with him wanting to return to Hendaye. The third and final part consists of another 32 chapters and begins once Mastreta arrives in Hendaye. It ends with a planned trip to England.

The story begins in April 1937, almost a year after the start of the Spanish Civil War (July 17, 1936 – April 1, 1939), and ends a few months later.