In the dead of cold Cluj nights, a former soldier with a troubled past is torn from his apartment by the Romanian Gendarmerie and thrown, without explanation, into a frigid room — face-to-face with a man without a name. What follows is not an interrogation, but an offer: a new life, an undercover mission.
Lieutenant Andrei Soare, Iraq veteran and former military nurse, is recruited by the Romanian Intelligence Service for a delicate task: to become the shadow of Sebastian Rusu — a charismatic, unstable, and dangerous politician. Under the cover of acting as his personal driver, Andrei must watch him, understand him, report on him. But how do you study a man without losing yourself in him?
In a world of suspicion, public theatre, and buried trauma, the lines between mission and obsession — between control and connection — begin to dissolve. Because when your target unravels before your eyes — and drags you down with him — neutrality no longer exists.
This is the English edition of the novel originally published in Romanian.
