Cristian Florescu

Cristian Florescu is the protagonist and first-person narrator in I Must Betray You. At the outset of the narrative, Cristian is seventeen years old, living in Bucharest, Romania with his family. When the narrator is called into the director’s office at school, he is dismayed to see a Securitate agent sitting behind the desk. The government official, who Cristian refers to as Agent Paddle Hands throughout the novel, informs him that he is being apprehended for accepting foreign currency, a criminal offense. While Cristian protests the accusation, he did not take the one dollar note intentionally, Agent Paddle Hands decrees that he will work as an informer, spying on the American diplomat to atone for his crime. Cristian is wracked with guilt for agreeing to work for the Securitate, however he believes that his work will help him secure medication for his dying grandfather, Bunu.

As...