I Must Betray You

Ich wusste nicht genau worauf ich mich einlasse, aber es hat mich so berührt und mitgerissen ich kann es nur empfehlen

Ich wusste vor dem Buch aufgrund von persönlichem Hintergrund einige Dinge über die Zeit unter Ceaușescu aber dieses Buch hat einen so persönlichen Eindruck erschaffen als wäre man selbst in der Zeit des Kommunismus in Rumänen gewesen. Man konnte sich sehr gut in den Hauptcharakter hineinversetzen und mit ihm mit fühlen. Die Informationen am Ende waren nochmal ein richtiger plottwist mit dem ich nicht gerechnet hatte. Ich kann dieses Buch von Herzen empfehlen, denn es zeigt sehr gut wie es damals in Rumänen zu ging ohne das die Welt davon wusste. Auch die historischen Informationen und Bilder am Ende des Buches sind sehr interessant und zeigen wie sehr sich tatsächlich mit der Geschichte beschäftigt wurde.

Sehr interessanter und gut geschriebener historischer Roman über einen Jugendlichen 1989 in Rumänien. Über den damaligen Alltag und die Entwicklung wusste ich vorher fast gar nichts. Dieses Buch ist ein guter Einstieg ins Thema.

This book tells the story of Cristian, a 17-year-old young man who lives in Bucharest in 1989, the period of communism in Romania. It shows the pain and suffering from that period when almost everything was illegal, and people were waiting for you to make a mistake in order to betray yourself to the security guards.

I didn't live during the communist period and I don't know much about that period either. Everything I know is from my mother and grandmother. But my family lived in the village, and the difference between living in the village and living in the city is huge. And this book managed to show me that unknown side as well. He managed to convey to me the pain and suffering experienced during that time. The main things talked about is hunger, lack of food and fear. Everyone was whispering and paying attention to what they were saying.

Sehr informativ& gut recherchiert

It was reading this or Malibu Rising. I picked this up. I've always had a thing for communism. I find it extremely interesting: how it functions, how the people experience it. I've never learnt about Romania at school, but found out many years later what happened there. I can't imagine living in communism and I don't think I could do that, since I've lived in a democracy since the day that I was born. How brave it is that so many students stood up to make a chance. So sad that so many people lost their life because of communism. It reminded me of a game we played at my uni. My German teacher was born near Leipzig (DDR) and we needed to cross the Berlin border (west-east). We changed passports with other students, where things like the name of your parents, birthdate of your parents etc. was noted. We tried to smuggle an LP or something western. They asked a lot of questions before deciding you could go to East-Berlin. I also went to the Stasi-prison and saw how the people were treated there. Of course this isn't the same as what happened in Romania, but it still brought me back to what I was feeling and thinking when playing that game and visiting that place. I hope to visit Romania today and learn more about the revolution. I'm fascinated by this book, that's why I finished this in one day. If you are interested in history - especially in Romanian or communism, I'd recommend this book. Very easy to read, short chapters and you get a lot of information (100% true information) about the Romanian revolution.

Unfassbar gut recherchiertes Buch über die rumänische Revolution von 1989.

Wow i don’t even know what to say right now. This book has been so high on my tbr for months but I just never bought it but thank god I finally did. This novel describes the, to most people unknown, suffering of the Romanian people and their fight for freedom in their country. Before reading this, I was completely oblivious to the fact that Romania was under such a strong dictatorship only 30 years ago…it is insane and absolutely disrespectful to the Romanian people who fought so hard for freedom in their country, that so many people oversee this country’s and it’s peoples suffering because it is a smaller and eastern european country. by reading this book I learned so much more about Romania and their vicious tyranny leader that I learned NOTHING about in 5 years of history classes at school, „why?“ , I wonder?! The pictures at the end made this story feel even more real and I was so touched by this entire book I think I’m going to have to devour every single book that Ruta Sepetys has written, because her writing is not only gripping and suspenseful it’s also astonishingly beautiful. I definitely need to reread this one day, to annotate and tab this book with all my heart. The characters in this were so well done I thought for a second, that I was reading about real people, which of course, partly I did , but the main characters weren’t real people at all which was shocking because they felt incredibly real to me "Paradise: If communism is Paradise, why do we need barriers, walls, and laws to keep people from escaping?” "How could we expect others to feel our pain or hear our cries for help when all we could do was whisper?” “Sorrow. Anger. An expanse of emptiness that takes form as a separate entity living inside of you. It digs, takes root, and dwells there. And somehow, you know that even if it worms its way out, there will be no relief. If it leaves, there will be nothing left but charred remains, like the inside of a house torched by fire.” "Good luck comes at a price. Bad luck is free.” "Do you hear me? Reciting jokes Laughing to hide the tears of truth That we are denied the present With empty promises Of an emptier future.” "Will YOU REMEMBER ME? A boy with wings of hope. Strapped to his back. That never had a chance to open, denied Fforever knowing, What he could have become. What we all could have become." "The State controls the amount of food we eat, our electricity, our transportation, the information we receive. But with philosophy, we control our own minds. What if the internal landscape was ours to build and paint?" "As the saying goes, better to die standing than live kneeling." "When we don't know the full story, sometimes we create one of our own. That's what I had done. And that can be dangerous."

This book is amazing. I want to shout it from the rooftops. It manages to get the historical information of that time across, without it being an overload or boring, by letting it be narrated by a young student. Through his eyes, we discover how the political system destroys lives, families and manges to spin a web of propaganda and fear. It's haunting, sad, devastating and yet icredibly well written and educating. Since both of my parents fled the former soviet union, this book made me understand their lives and experiences so much better, even though this book takes place in Romania and it is said that the regime there was crueler than the soviet one. Yet, there are many similiarities....the way the system operates and how it affected families was the same. This book is not a light read, there is not much positivity going on there and yet, I gave it a 5-star rating because it gave me much more than historical knowledge about Romania, which wasn't on my radar before reading this book, it also brought me closer to my family, which I cannot thank the author enough for. READ THIS BOOK