I Must Betray You

Genre/Award/Honor

Historical Fiction

Texas Library Association 2023 TAYSHAS Reading List

Age Group

7th – 12th

Plot Summary:

Christian Florescu is a Romanian teenager in 1989.  He lives his life attending state school 6 days a week, standing in line for whatever is available each day, hanging out with his friend, Luca, and talking with his grandfather, Bunu.  Things change one day when he is blackmailed by the Securitate, the Romanian KGB, to spy on an American diplomat’s family in exchange for medicine for Bunu.  As Communism crumbles around him, Christian must decide who he can and cannot trust.

Justification

I majored in Russian language for my undergraduate degree and watched the Iron Curtain fall in Eastern Europe on CNN. I visited the USSR as part of my studies and returned just weeks before Mikhail Gorbachev was overthrown and communism ended in Russia. When I read a synopsis of I Must Betray You, I wanted to learn more about the fall of communism in the satellite countries and compare it to my experience in the USSR. The easy, carefree summer I spent in Moscow does not compare to oppressive, cold atmosphere under the Romanian regime.

Setting

I Must Betray You is set in Bucharest, Romania, in winter 1989. The communist dictator, Nikolae Ceausescu, arguably led the most repressive of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe.  There was no Perestroika or Glasnost, the openness and warming of relations with the west, that was present in the USSR.  It was estimated that 1 in 10 of every citizen was an informant (Sepetys, p. 307). Romania’s bitterly cold winter adds to the gloom that pervades the narrative. Electricity was unreliable. Lines for food or other necessities were long. Wild dogs roamed the streets.

Mood

There is an oppressive gloom that permeates all the characters in the book. Christian knows that he is being spied on by friends and classmates, but he doesn’t know who he can trust. The gloom is broken by his grandfather, Bunu, a dissident. Bunu is old enough to remember life before communism and he instills hope in Christian. His sarcastic jokes help remind Christian that there is a chance for something better so that when revolution comes to Romania, Christian is ready to step up and take part. 

Character

From the start, Christian does not accept the reality that his government creates for people in Romania. He keeps a secret diary where he wonders if people in other countries live like Romanians. Bunu’s wit keeps Christian from falling into despair. When Christian is recruited to work for the Securitate in exchange for medicine for Bunu, Christian seizes the opportunity to let the world know what Romania is like.  He naively plans to be a double agent and give his journal to the American family on which he was assigned to spy., soon he realizes that things are not simple. Which of his friends or family members informed on him? Christian grows stronger and more resolute with each layer of the psychological oppression he peels away.

References

Sepetys, R. (2022) I Must Betray You. Philomel Books.