Shepherd
 Mihaela Stoica
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2001 iUniverse Inc.
  ISBN: 0595193099
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A melancholy love story between two very different people caught in the middle of a revolution gone awry.

In the autumn of 1989, Aurea Cioban, a student at the University in Bucharest, meets Maurice Calistrat, a young lieutenant stationed at a nearby military base. A spark ignites & soon develops into a love affair.

Love, however, is not blind & a combination of jealousy, fatalism, & ambition begin to take their toll on the young couple's courtship.

Recruited by the secret police force, Calistrat is swallowed by a world of betrayal from which the only redeeming thought he has is to keep Aurea safe at any cost. His obsessive protection, however, tragically becomes the very tool that betrays the lovers & their families.

Shepherd wanders into a world of superstitions & deeply rooted beliefs, steeped in Romania's rich history of mysticism & folklore.

Absorbing & intricate & everso sad.

Mihaela Stoica comes by her insights into Romanian romance honestly, she was born there & studied at the University in Bucharest before moving to the United States in 1990.
(03/02/03)

Rebecca