In The Red: A Novel

by Elena Mauli Shapiro

When Irina - Romanian by birth but brought up by American parents who have never understood her - arrives at college she quickly abandons ordinary student life for an affair with an older, mysterious Romanian man named Andrei.

Andrei awakens a powerful sensuality in Irina. And he has money - lots of it. Irina is free. But the longer she stays with Andrei, the more she is certain that she can't leave, and that may be complicit in Andrei's work - whatever that 'work' might be. Then an unexpected friendship with a young Romanian bride opens the door to escape, and also revenge.

• ISBN10: 0316405361
• ISBN13: 9780316405362
• Publish Date: 25 September 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

This was an interesting read - very different to any thing I've ever read and while it wasn't perfect, it was interesting. The novel has three different parts, that all intersect. There's Irina's relationship with Andrei, the aftermath, and Romanian fairy tales. I confess it was the latter two which held my attention. I never quite understood what Irina saw in Andrei, he's clearly not a good man, and I just felt she could have done better... The Romanian fairy tales were by far my favourite parts of the novel. They were very interesting. I just with the whole novel had kept my attention as well as those fairy tales.