I Must Betray You
By Ruta Sepetys
Set in Romania during the final days of the reign of Nicolae Ceausescu, this book examines the toll that a society of spies takes on one another. The book opens with the main character, Cristian Florescu, "recruited" by the Romanian secret police. The quotation marks because he really has no choice. His recruiter, dubbed paddle hands because of the size of his digits, claims to have caught Cristian in the act of trading items (stamps) with a foreigner (a diplomat's son) in exchange for currency (a dollar). The first two are true, but harmless; it is the last item that could get Cristian, and his whole family, in trouble. Moreover, he is enticed by the promise of medicine for his beloved, ailing grandfather. And so Cristian, feeling he has no choice, becomes the thing he hates most in the world: an informer.
He is not alone. It's a society full of informers, and Cristian is left wondering who it was who informed on him. He settles on his once-best-friend, Luca. Meanwhile, his grandfather, sick though he may be, continuously reminds Cristian of the evils of a regime that relies on fear to subdue an entire population, much to the chagrin of his mother and father, who has become a silent shadow of himself.
There is light even in this grim world, though. Cristian kindles a relationship with a girl, Lilliana. But even this isn't safe. It turns out someone is watching them, and when word of specific details of their rendezvous get back to Lilliana, she assumes it is Cristian who revealed them. Is Cristian an informer? Yes. But not of this kind! And so once again, he is left enraged, searching for who might have given him up. He settles on his sister, but, it turns out, he is wrong.
And then it all comes crashing down. All across Eastern Europe, communist dictatorships fall, and Ceausescu is the last. But it only comes after an uprising that is met with cruel violence, which brings Cristian and Lilliana back together -- but which takes the life of Christian's sister. It is only long afterward that he learns the truth: It was his own mother who spied on him.
I found this an interesting read, particularly when tension builds toward the end. It is a pretty chilling reminder of how lucky we are to live in a democracy, even if it is far less than perfect.
