I Must Betray You Hardcover – February 1, 2022

In 1992, I left Romania and never turned back. By then, as a young student, I had lived through essentially all the events in the book, and tried to rise in a happier aftermath. Not only has the author done her homework and researched the facts, she has also reached deeply into the deep well of despair that living through those years brought. The glimmers of a happier, richer past stomped by the grey reality of life without hope. It's not that the regime managed to convince people that communism was better. Nobody believed that. But the state of constant guard, learned when you were a small child, meant people lived in a constant fear mixed with anger and shame. This is what the book explores, unflinchingly, un-romantically, uncolored. After the revolution, while I was trying to figure out what my future would bring, I realized that the collective trauma would not leave us. I left, not because I wanted a better, richer life, or because I held a deeply seated distaste for Romania. I left because I could not heal among my people. In leaving, I left behind too much of my own being, my family's long past, a sense of belonging. I am now in my 50s, reading this book selected for my son's HS English, and confront memories and despairs from a long time ago. The book builds slowly, carefully building the years of dread and awfulness we all lived through, over about 2/3 of the content. The Revolution laid in stark view the violence of the regime, their disconnect from the people. Again, the book explodes through those pages in ways that are precisely rooted in the reality of those days. As someone who lived through it, I could pin every event to a real place and real people from the time. I hope readers will be able to use their imagination and spend the time to look through testimonies and youtube videos of the time. It was a tragic lesson on the consequences of a corrupt dictatorship.Also, to the author: the night of 12/21/1998, while the army and police were using armored vehicles to break the masses of protesters in small groups that could be rounded up, beaten to a pulp and thrown, sometimes unconscious, in the van, Vytautas Landsbergis, not yet president, but already a leader, in a still-sovietic Lithuania, gave an interview on Radio Free Europe, cheering on the uprising in Bucharest. Here I am, 30+ years later, still remembering his speech that night, the respect I had for his courage, and the way it allowed me to think that maybe the revolution might achieve something. This book, written by a Lithuanian author, confirms my steady gratitude towards the country that saw us in times of deep trouble. Thank you for this book!

I don’t think I’ve gotten through 300+ pages so fast. The struggle with guilt and suspicion, the fear of being watched or heard or one’s personal opinions discovered or misconstrued, the later on who was dead and who alive fm kept me fraught with guessing.

It was a little slow-paced for me at first but then started to quickly get more intriguing. The courage of many Romanians fighting for their freedom during one of the darkest times really hits your soul. After reading this book, it made me want to dive deeper into the history of Romania's Revolution of 1989. This is another piece of history that will stay with me forever.

Good reading.

I can’t wait to read this

An excellent look into communist Romania through the eyes of a 17-year-old young man. I knew very little about communist Romania, but this book gave, I'm sure, just a glimpse. All I remember about those times was the Berlin Wall falling and Nadia Comanche defecting. Super interesting!The book was well written. The author did an excellent job describing scenes to help me visualize the setting. Emotions of the character were well communicated and came through to me.I loved this... Paradise: If communism is Paradise, why do we need barriers, walls, and laws to keep people from escaping?Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray YouIt really makes you think.I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more books by Ryta Sepetys.

If you like historical fiction you’ll enjoy the author, Ruta Sepetys. She’s an excellent storyteller who uses written language that kept me intrigued and engaged.

I loved this book! I literally read this in three days and immediately added it to my high school classroom library.

I like the way this author intersperses true facts with her fictional characters. I have learned many things from get books and have enjoyed all of them for that reason.

Beautiful story. I couldn’t put the book down.

A novel about Ceaucescu’s Romania told from the point of view of a teenager forced to spy for the secret police. It’s a powerful reminder of the horror of dictatorships. This time Communism, whereas the other novel of hers I’ve read, ‘Fountains of Silence’, is about fascism in Franco’s Spain.I remember watching on TV the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989. It was as wonderful as it was unexpected. Romania was the most brutal of the communist regimes in Europe, yet Ceaucescu was feted by the Western leaders because he took an independent line from Russia.The writing is aimed at young adults but I’d say it’s worth reading whatever your age.

Nous avons lu ce livre moi et ma fille de 10 ans. Nous avons été submergées par cette histoire qui nous a tenu en haleine jusqu’à la fin.Concernant Ceausescu, je dois avouer que j’ai croisé des roumains qui m’ont parlé de cette période mais, je n’avais jamais trop perçu la crue réalité derrière cette partie de leur histoire, je trouve que ce roman fait reconnaître le courage et la force de cette nation pour dépasser cette période.Bref, un livre pour des adolescents hautement recommandable pour des adultes, à lire absolument.

It's the third book that I have read from Ruta Sepetis and she never disappoints. She has a special gift for building true-to-life stories that immediately catches your attention. The topics are carefully selected and when you finish reading, you have no other option than consider reallity in a very different way from the view you had before. I'll never regard Romania or its people as I used to in the past.