Description

A physics teacher in Chișinău studies state bids to control the Church. He once served as a KGB agent. In 1987, he went to a secret Kremlin meeting. There, state staff made new plans. They sought to put state agents in Church leadership. He studies Lenin’s secret letters, which called for priests’ deaths. He also looks at later World Council of Churches debates. The plot shifts from Moscow to Chișinău, Bucharest and Brussels.

Savatie Baștovoi blends history and fantasy in this novel. He explores the Church’s fate in the end times. The book is for readers drawn to the history of ideas. It also speaks to those drawn to disputes between major faiths. It deals with occult groups, hidden plots and conspiracy theories. A note states that the book is fiction. This holds despite its use of real places and facts from history.

Baștovoi has written fiction, essays and poems. His past fiction shows how communist schemes shape a child’s mind. A 2007 Gaudeamus book fair list ranked authors by sales. It placed him among five leading Romanian authors. In 2008, he won a Council of Europe award. It was for his fiction and essays. The Writers’ Union of Moldova gave him its 2007 essay prize. His poems have won prizes and appeared in verse collections. These came out in France, the United States and Germany.