Refiner's Fire

June 1, 2000
Bambola bases this novel on first-hand accounts of atrocities committed under Nicolae Ceau sescu. When, in the wake of World War II, a Romanian woman had to sell one son to an American officer to escape a refugee camp, she impressed the officer's name on the memory of her remaining son. Forty years later, Alexander Wainwright accepts a posting to Romania, and a spy, Col. Yuri Deyneko, is immediately attached to the new ambassador. Yuri is the only one who knows that he is Alexander's brother, and when he sees how cold this man is, he wishes it weren't so. Under Ceau sescu's regime, Christians have been forced underground, and Alexander is ordered not to rock the boat. But when a plea to help them comes from both his wife and Yuri, he turns to God for answers. By turns hopeful and devastating, this novel powerfully portrays the unbearable cruelty of humans and the helplessness of the Christians, whose faith never falters. Writing as Margaret Miller, Bambola won the 1998 Small Press Editor's Choice Award for her first novel, A Vessel of Honor, and her new work deserves a place in all collections.

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