First published 2012
In 1948, hospital workers in Iasi, Romania discover a silent man on their doorstep, wet with dew and fragile as a wounded bird. Days pass before anyone realizes he cannot hear or speak. Ward sister Adriana sits beside him, whispering to fill her loneliness while her son remains missing from the Russian front. Young nurse Safta brings him paper and pencils. Through his drawings, memories emerge: a hillside, a stable, a racing car, a grand house from before the world changed. The man is Augustin, son of a cook at the Dumbraveni manor where Safta once lived as the privileged daughter. Born six months apart, they shared a wordless connection in childhood. While Augustin's life remained small, Safta's world grew to include languages, society, and dreams of Paris. She fell in love one summer day with a fleeting young man and his green Lagonda. War has swept through since then, leaving behind a Communist regime where walls listen and images carry danger. Even neighbors with old mirrors and samovars cannot be trusted. As Augustin's pictures unlock their shared past, both must navigate a world where memory itself has become perilous.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Iasi, Dumbraveni
Period: 1948, World War II
321 pages · Kindle Edition · Bloomsbury
Content warnings: war