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Last Train to Istanbul by Ayşe Kulin
The Bucharest Legacy by William Maz
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Red Chaos by Ed Fuller & Gary Grossman
Budapest in Pieces by Richard Wake
The Woman of a Thousand Names by Alexandra Lapierre

Political tensions run high in these 7 electrifying novels. Set in Eastern Europe during some of history’s most tumultuous times, these stories showcase the endurance of the human spirit, the cost of freedom, and what it takes to survive.

Last Train to Istanbul by Ayşe Kulin

Last Train to Istanbul by Ayşe Kulin

As the daughter of one of Turkey’s last Ottoman pashas, Selva could win the heart of any man in Ankara. Yet the spirited young beauty only has eyes for Rafael Alfandari, the handsome Jewish son of an esteemed court physician. In defiance of their families, they marry, fleeing to Paris to build a new life. But when the Nazis invade France and begin rounding up Jews, the exiled lovers will learn that nothing ― not war, not politics, not even religion ― can break the bonds of family. For after they learn that Selva is but one of their fellow citizens trapped in France, a handful of brave Turkish diplomats hatch a plan to spirit them and hundreds of innocents to safety. Together, they must traverse a war-torn continent, crossing enemy lines and risking everything in a desperate bid for freedom.


The Bucharest Legacy by William Maz

The Bucharest Legacy by William Maz

The CIA is rocked to its core when a KGB defector divulges that there is a KGB mole inside the Agency. CIA analyst Bill Hefflin becomes their prime suspect when it’s revealed the mole’s handler is a KGB agent called Boris — Hefflin’s longtime KGB asset. Hefflin is given a chance to prove his innocence by returning to his city of birth, Bucharest, Romania, to find Boris and track down the identity of the mole. It’s been three years since the bloody revolution, and what he finds is a cauldron of spies, crooked politicians, and a country controlled by the underground and the new oligarchs, all of whom want to find Boris. But Hefflin has a secret that no one else knows — Boris has been dead for over a year. (Check out the BookTrib review here.)


I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force. Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer. He’s left with only two choices: betray everyone and everything he loves—or use his position to creatively undermine the most notoriously evil dictator in Eastern Europe. Cristian risks everything to unmask the truth behind the regime, give voice to fellow Romanians, and expose to the world what is happening in his country. He eagerly joins the revolution to fight for change when the time arrives. But what is the cost of freedom?


A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose. (Check out the BookTrib review here.)


Red Chaos by Ed Fuller & Gary Grossman

Red Chaos by Ed Fuller & Gary Grossman

The Arctic ice is melting, the waters are warming, and Russian President Nicolai Gorshkov is one step closer to monopolizing the oil industry and funding his expansion plans past Ukraine and Latvia. With nothing less than oil futures and the global economy at stake, one man slips out of the shadows to stop Gorshkov’s maniacal plans: Dan Reilly, a freelance State Department and CIA consultant. In his attempts, Reilly is drawn into a web of intrigue twelve years in the making, involving the American president, a United States senator, a Chinese businessman, and the death of a young girl. How these seemingly unrelated elements have a profound impact on Russia’s far-reaching plans is what makes Red Chaos a thriller to be read like breaking news. (Check out the BookTrib review here.)


Budapest in Pieces by Richard Wake

Budapest in Pieces by Richard Wake

Alex Kovacs, an ordinary man and an extraordinary spy, has been dispatched to Budapest, a city divided not only by the Danube River but by the brutal memories of the war. There Alex must penetrate the hierarchy of the Hungarian Communist Party. There’s nothing simple about that — nothing simple or safe. And along the way, Alex finds himself tangled up in the lives of several other Hungarians, including a monsignor with a secret that would compromise him with both the Catholic Church and the Communists, and a Budapest woman who holds a grudge dating back to the war years, a grudge she could not relinquish.


The Woman of a Thousand Names by Alexandra Lapierre

The Woman of a Thousand Names by Alexandra Lapierre

Born into Russian aristocracy, wealth and security, Moura never had any reason to worry. But in the upheaval of the Bolshevik Revolution, her entire world crumbles. As her family and friends are being persecuted by Vladimir Lenin’s ruthless police, she falls into a passionate affair with British secret agent Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart. But when he’s abruptly and mysteriously deported from Russia, Moura is left alone and vulnerable. Now, she must find new paths for her survival, even if it means shedding her past and taking on new identities. Some will praise her tenderness and undying loyalty. Others will denounce her lies. But all will agree on one point: Moura embodies Life. Life at all cost. (Check out the BookTrib review here.)


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