Summary

At the outset of I Must Betray You, seventeen year old Cristian Florescu was living in Romania and hiding his writing. He dreamt of becoming an author, but the communist government’s strict regime criminalized free speech. At school, he enrolled in an English course to spend more time with girls and interpret “song lyrics that [he] heard illegally on voice of America broadcasts” (3). In Chapter 2, was called to the director’s office. The man behind the desk had an imposing figure and hands like paddles. Cristian knew immediately that he was “an agent of the Securitate, Romania’s fearsome secret police” (6). The man behind the desk confirmed Cristian’s name and told him that he knew what he had done.

In Chapter 3, Cristian struggled to ascertain what he was being accused of. He wondered if perhaps the interrogation was about his...