A gut-wrenching, startling window into communist Romania and the citizen spy network that devastated a nation, from the #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Gray.

Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a poet and philosopher. But Romanians aren t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force.

Amidst the grip of the maniacal dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu and a country governed by lies, deceit, isolation, and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer. He s left with only two choices: betray everyone and everything he loves or use his position to creatively undermine the most notoriously evil regime in Eastern Europe.

Cristian risks everything to expose the truth behind the regime, to give his people a voice, and to tell the world what is happening in Romania. And he is eager to join in the revolution and fight for change when the time arrives. But the cost of a better future comes at the expense of broken hearts and lives lost.

Masterful storyteller Ruta Sepetys is back with a historical thriller that examines the little-known history of a nation defined by its secrecy and lies, and the unwavering conviction of the human spirit, even and especially in the face of hardship, sacrifice, and war.