Publication Date: July 7, 2025
Germany, 1941. Noemi’s hazel eyes shine with tears as she takes Pascal’s hand. ‘Please don’t go,’ she begs him. ‘If you leave me now, we might never find each other again…’
When Pascal kisses Noemi and presses his mother’s silver locket into her hands, it is a moment she has been longing for her whole life. Growing up they were fearless, exploring the wild mountains in the Bavarian countryside together. But when war is declared, overnight their love becomes forbidden – Noemi is Jewish, while Pascal is being pressured to become a Hitler Youth officer by his father.
When Noemi’s parents are captured and taken to Dachau, she knows her hometown is no longer safe. With time running out, Pascal smuggles her onto a train, praying she will survive until the war is over. Devastated, he watches the train leave, promising himself that one day he will find the girl who took his heart and locket.
Noemi’s life on the run plunges her into new dangers, but she never loses hope that one day she will make her way home to her family again. She tells herself that family can never now include Pascal, but still she remembers the pendant he gave her, and hope flickers in her chest like a flame, that one day somehow they might reunite…
But as the world burns around her, will she have the strength to find and forgive him? And if she does, will their love last – or will the war’s shadows tear them both apart forever?
A heartrendingly emotional page-turner about hope in the darkest of days, and how love must always prevail. Perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Nightingale and The Book of Lost Names.
Inseparable since young children, Noemi and Pascal wrestle with societal pressures in their community leading up to World War II.
Author Catherine Hokin delivers a heartbreaking tale that begins in September 1934 and spans 11 years in The Secret Locket. With the evolution of the National Socialist movement, Pascal and his politician father embraced it.
Noemi, meanwhile, knows the new regime is no place for a Jew, regardless of Pascal’s efforts to distinguish between “good” and “bad” Jews. Forced to go their separate ways, both Noemi and Pascal face different struggles.
Noemi’s experiences reflect the challenges of being a Jew, along with her subsequent decision to join the rebellion. This is contrasted by Pascal’s military service and subsequent epiphany regarding the Nazi regime.
Rather than a story about the horrors of trying to survive a concentration camp or a Jewish ghetto, the focus is on an unlikely connection between two young people and the decisions they make.
The Secret Locket illustrates the bond between Noemi and Pascal while exploring challenges that might destroy it forever.
I seem to have followed a rather meandering career, including marketing and teaching and politics (don’t try and join the dots), to get where I have always wanted to be, which is writing historical fiction. I am a story lover as well as a story writer and nothing fascinates me more than a strong female protagonist and a quest. Hopefully those are what you will encounter when you pick up my books.
This is so kind of you, the page looks amazing! Best wishes, Catherine