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Astronaut!: A Novel
A tense, darkly funny, and politically resonant novel of life under authoritarian rule.
Romania, 1989, the twilight of Ceausescu’s dictatorship: A time when every neighbor, every friend, every family member may be an informant for the regime. When news emerges of a man-eating bear terrorizing the country, two bright lives collide. Constantin, an idealistic police detective—prone to daydreaming and scribbling fairytales in his notebook for his four-year-old son—is tasked with solving the string of mysterious deaths. Lia, a rebellious, inquisitive schoolgirl pining for more color in her life, is unwittingly drawn into an elderly neighbor’s secret plot against the regime. The decisions they make amid the constant gray skies and fear of speaking out will have sweeping consequences—for themselves, for their families, and for their country. Astronaut! is a chilling, suspenseful, and resonant tale by a dynamic new novelist.
Romania, 1989, the twilight of Ceausescu’s dictatorship: A time when every neighbor, every friend, every family member may be an informant for the regime. When news emerges of a man-eating bear terrorizing the country, two bright lives collide. Constantin, an idealistic police detective—prone to daydreaming and scribbling fairytales in his notebook for his four-year-old son—is tasked with solving the string of mysterious deaths. Lia, a rebellious, inquisitive schoolgirl pining for more color in her life, is unwittingly drawn into an elderly neighbor’s secret plot against the regime. The decisions they make amid the constant gray skies and fear of speaking out will have sweeping consequences—for themselves, for their families, and for their country. Astronaut! is a chilling, suspenseful, and resonant tale by a dynamic new novelist.
1 pages, Audio CD
First published July 14, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
July 22, 2026
I think that when you are a child, even if you are poor, even if you live in a dictatorship, you still have that curiosity for the unknown or the future that you can't see in the adults around you because they have been "educated" and understand the dangers of the world they are living in.
'Astronaut!' captures both the reality of living in Romania during the criminal regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu and the rebellious nature of childhood through Lia, a schoolgirl who by mistake gets her parents involved in a murder investigation with political connotations.
As a Romanian, I imagine that I may be the hardest audience for this because I am familiar with the world that this novel now shows to a larger audience. And because of that, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, and I am curious how international audiences will respond to it.
For me, despite the familiarity of the subject, it was a page turner that shows the absurdities of that time, without simplifying our history. Highly recommended. If you can't quite believe the story about the bear in this novel, I recommend Cristian Mungiu's movie 'Tales from the Golden Age'.
'Astronaut!' captures both the reality of living in Romania during the criminal regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu and the rebellious nature of childhood through Lia, a schoolgirl who by mistake gets her parents involved in a murder investigation with political connotations.
As a Romanian, I imagine that I may be the hardest audience for this because I am familiar with the world that this novel now shows to a larger audience. And because of that, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, and I am curious how international audiences will respond to it.
For me, despite the familiarity of the subject, it was a page turner that shows the absurdities of that time, without simplifying our history. Highly recommended. If you can't quite believe the story about the bear in this novel, I recommend Cristian Mungiu's movie 'Tales from the Golden Age'.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
4,5
Fantastic new novel set in Romania 1989, about the absurdities of totalitarianism and a society in which any neighbour or colleague can be an informer.
The main character is Lia, a little blabbermouth who can't help getting herself into trouble. She notices the world is gradually losing its colour and is determined to bring it back. When she accidentally wins a drawing contest she shouldn't have won (because her classmate Dora whose parents are high up in the Party was supposed to win) the prize is a meet and greet with Ceausescu himself.
A second storyline is that of detective Constantin, who is put in charge of the investigation into a gruesome murder, which soon turns out to be the first of many. Is there a serial killer on the loose, or is it perhaps more convenient to blame a bear?
I love this very much, a smart plot is combined with humour. Astronaut! (i.e. not kosmonaut) has some of the absurdity and humour of Catch-22 and the warm atmosphere of Mariana Leky.
I have some Romanian friends and lately nothing excites them more than bear stories - it's a real thing.
I am pencilling this down for the Booker longlist - it could be the "Endling" of 2026.
Fantastic new novel set in Romania 1989, about the absurdities of totalitarianism and a society in which any neighbour or colleague can be an informer.
The main character is Lia, a little blabbermouth who can't help getting herself into trouble. She notices the world is gradually losing its colour and is determined to bring it back. When she accidentally wins a drawing contest she shouldn't have won (because her classmate Dora whose parents are high up in the Party was supposed to win) the prize is a meet and greet with Ceausescu himself.
A second storyline is that of detective Constantin, who is put in charge of the investigation into a gruesome murder, which soon turns out to be the first of many. Is there a serial killer on the loose, or is it perhaps more convenient to blame a bear?
I love this very much, a smart plot is combined with humour. Astronaut! (i.e. not kosmonaut) has some of the absurdity and humour of Catch-22 and the warm atmosphere of Mariana Leky.
I have some Romanian friends and lately nothing excites them more than bear stories - it's a real thing.
I am pencilling this down for the Booker longlist - it could be the "Endling" of 2026.
April 29, 2026
This powerful novel vividly captures the suffocating reality of life under a dictatorship in 1980s Romania. Following Lia, a brave little girl longing for the lost "colors" of her country, was an incredibly emotional experience. I felt a deep urge to reach through the pages and protect her. This is a thought-provoking reminder of the true value of freedom.
July 23, 2026
Romanas man turėjo būti mažų mažiausiai „pusė velnio“. Veiksmas vyksta paskutiniais Rumunijos monstro Ceaușescu valdymo metais, kuomet kaip ir visose socialistinio lagerio respublikose, čia vyko vidinis pasipriešinimo judėjimas. Iš pradžių pasakojimas labai įtraukė, šiek tiek priminė ukrainiečių rašytojo Andrejaus Kurkovo istorinę detektyvų seriją „Kijevo paslaptys“ (angl. Kyiv Mysteries). Knygoje buvo tikrai neblogų įžvalgų, pavyzdžiui, apie tuometį visuomenės bespalviškumą, autentiškų gyvenimo tokioje santvarkoje aprašymų. Tačiau įpusėjus pradėjau piktintis. Autorės sprendimas pasinaudoti naiviu ir smalsiu vaiku rengiant pasikėsinimą nužudyti šalies vadovą man pasirodė daugiau nei keistas. Parašyta tikrai neblogai, bet tokiai satyrai (?) pasitelkti vaiką – per daug drastiška mano skoniui.
2,5*
2,5*
April 12, 2026
Communist Romania seen from a perspective of 8 year old Lia, who wants to add colour, while simultaneously there's a wild man eater bear on the loose, but is it really a bear?
Interesting take on propaganda and totalitarianism. I especially liked the scene where Lia has to stand in line for hours, because someone heard there'll be a chicken in shop, because my parents told me many times how they had to do that too.
The audiobook narrators were good!
Thank you Netgalley for providing digital advanced copy in exchange for honest review.
Interesting take on propaganda and totalitarianism. I especially liked the scene where Lia has to stand in line for hours, because someone heard there'll be a chicken in shop, because my parents told me many times how they had to do that too.
The audiobook narrators were good!
Thank you Netgalley for providing digital advanced copy in exchange for honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Astronaut by Oana Aristide
Thank you to NetGalley and Oana Aristide for providing both the audiobook (narrated by Rosalind Lailey) and the e-book advanced copies in exchange for an honest review.
Set in 1989 Romania, just months before the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu and the eruption of the Romanian Revolution, Astronaut follows two seemingly separate lives: Lia, a young girl whose imagination stretches far beyond the grey confines of her world, and Constantin, a disciplined detective tasked with trying to catch what appears to be a serial killer... As unrest quietly builds across the country, Lia retreats into stories of space and possibility, while Constantin methodically pieces together a case that carries emotional consequences. The novel gradually reveals how their worlds are connected but it does so with restraint and care.
What makes this book different is its tonal balance. This isn’t simply historical fiction, nor is it purely a detective story. It’s a meditation on imagination and how it protects us, shapes us, and sometimes exposes us. Lia’s innocence never feels sentimental; it feels necessary. Constantin’s investigative precision is grounded, yet softened by the imaginative bedtime stories he tells his son, Sandu. (These were my favourite!) The contrast between a child trying to make sense of her environment and a man trying to impose order on it gives the novel emotional tension that feels both intimate and political.
Readers should care because the stakes are human rather than sensational. The backdrop of late-communist Romania... rationing, fear of the Securitate, whispered dissent isn’t just historical colour; it presses in on every character decision. Aristide doesn’t overwhelm with exposition, but the sense of a country on the brink adds quiet urgency throughout. The story hooks you not through twists, but through emotional convergence and the slow realisation that innocence and investigation are moving toward one another.
Experiencing this through both audio and print deepened the impact. Rosalind Lailey’s narration is measured and emotionally intelligent, with pacing that allows tension to build naturally. Her Romanian accent felt authentic to me and never distracting... instead, it enriched the atmosphere and grounded the setting. The audiobook particularly elevates Lia’s chapters, capturing vulnerability without overplaying it. By the end, Aristide ties the dual perspectives together in a way that feels earned, thoughtful, and quietly powerful.
#Astronaut #NetGalley
March 4, 2026
A moving and darkly humorous coming-of-age story that had me highly entertained throughout! Have never read a book set in communist Romania and I’m not sure what I expected, but I loved this. Perfect balance of weird and touching. Lia was such a well written protagonist!! If you’re looking for a satirical detective novel with hidden depth and important themes, definitely pick this one up. 🐻 🎒 The narrator was also fabulous. Thank you to Headline Audio and NetGalley for the ARC 🎧
February 5, 2026
Astronaut! is a compelling and vivid historical novel that combines suspense, satire, and poignant character study against the last days of Communist Romania. Set in a grey, tightly controlled world of rationing, informers, and state propaganda, the story follows two unlikely protagonists whose lives intersect in meaningful ways.
Constantin is an idealistic police detective tasked with investigating a series of grisly murders. He is thoughtful and introspective, juggling the weight of his job with scribbled fairytales for his young child. Lia, a spirited and perceptive schoolgirl, yearns for colour and freedom in a society that demands conformity. By chance, she becomes involved in her elderly neighbour’s secret plot against the regime.
Aristide breathes life into late-Communist Romania, capturing both the absurdities of everyday life under authoritarian rule and the small acts of resistance that define her characters. The narrative deftly balances the tension of a detective plot with the coming-of-age experiences of Lia and the moral complexities faced by Constantin, creating a layered and engaging read.
The novel explores how individuals navigate fear, truth, and loyalty in a world where even simple conversations can carry risk. It’s deeply moving and occasionally wryly funny, showing how hope and resilience persist even in the bleakest contexts.
Overall, Astronaut! is a richly imagined story that stays with you, offering insight into a turbulent period of history through memorable characters and a propulsive, thoughtful plot.
Highly recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
Constantin is an idealistic police detective tasked with investigating a series of grisly murders. He is thoughtful and introspective, juggling the weight of his job with scribbled fairytales for his young child. Lia, a spirited and perceptive schoolgirl, yearns for colour and freedom in a society that demands conformity. By chance, she becomes involved in her elderly neighbour’s secret plot against the regime.
Aristide breathes life into late-Communist Romania, capturing both the absurdities of everyday life under authoritarian rule and the small acts of resistance that define her characters. The narrative deftly balances the tension of a detective plot with the coming-of-age experiences of Lia and the moral complexities faced by Constantin, creating a layered and engaging read.
The novel explores how individuals navigate fear, truth, and loyalty in a world where even simple conversations can carry risk. It’s deeply moving and occasionally wryly funny, showing how hope and resilience persist even in the bleakest contexts.
Overall, Astronaut! is a richly imagined story that stays with you, offering insight into a turbulent period of history through memorable characters and a propulsive, thoughtful plot.
Highly recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
July 24, 2026
Astronaut! by Oana Aristide — ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I went into this book aware of Ceaușescu-era Romania only in the vaguest, peripheral way — a piece of history I'd heard of but never really sat inside. Astronaut! pulled me all the way in.
The novel follows two threads. Lia is a schoolgirl with an almost obsessive longing for color, who befriends an elderly man in her building and gets unwittingly swept into his plot against the regime. Constantin is a police detective investigating a string of deaths officially blamed on a man-eating bear, trying to hold onto his own sanity while writing dark fairy tales for his young son — stories meant to prepare the boy for the world he's growing up into. The two threads slowly braid together as the book goes on.
Lia is the heart of it for me. She reads as a kind of embodied innocence — someone reaching for a brighter future, willing to rebel in small, sometimes childish ways that make total sense once you remember she's still just a kid figuring out the world. Aristide renders the setting almost entirely in gray, white, and black, and that absence of color isn't just described — it's something you feel on every page. That's the book's real achievement for me.
The book is bleak and tense and absurd from start to finish. My one real critique is the old man' Comrade Mantea's subplot: his plot against the government is fairly easy to guess ahead of time, and the reveal landed pretty much where I'd already predicted.
Even so, this was a tense, absorbing read I stayed with the whole way through.
I went into this book aware of Ceaușescu-era Romania only in the vaguest, peripheral way — a piece of history I'd heard of but never really sat inside. Astronaut! pulled me all the way in.
The novel follows two threads. Lia is a schoolgirl with an almost obsessive longing for color, who befriends an elderly man in her building and gets unwittingly swept into his plot against the regime. Constantin is a police detective investigating a string of deaths officially blamed on a man-eating bear, trying to hold onto his own sanity while writing dark fairy tales for his young son — stories meant to prepare the boy for the world he's growing up into. The two threads slowly braid together as the book goes on.
Lia is the heart of it for me. She reads as a kind of embodied innocence — someone reaching for a brighter future, willing to rebel in small, sometimes childish ways that make total sense once you remember she's still just a kid figuring out the world. Aristide renders the setting almost entirely in gray, white, and black, and that absence of color isn't just described — it's something you feel on every page. That's the book's real achievement for me.
The book is bleak and tense and absurd from start to finish. My one real critique is the old man' Comrade Mantea's subplot: his plot against the government is fairly easy to guess ahead of time, and the reveal landed pretty much where I'd already predicted.
Even so, this was a tense, absorbing read I stayed with the whole way through.
August 1, 2026
Rounded up from 4.5.
This was such an interesting story, told through two very different perspectives of characters impacted by the totalitarian regime of late-80s Romania. While Lia, a schoolgirl, befriends an eccentric neighbor, longs for a bicycle, and plots to ask Ceaușescu to return colors to the world, Constantin, a detective, is embroiled in a search for a local serial killer--while his superiors blame the murders on a bear for lack of a better suspect. At once absurd and touching, the book deftly illustrates the bleakness of Romanian life during this era. As I read, I deeply felt innocent Lia’s confusion about the state of the world alongside Constantin’s desperate hope for a better future for his son--while also seeing it as a cautionary tale to not let history repeat itself.
This was such an interesting story, told through two very different perspectives of characters impacted by the totalitarian regime of late-80s Romania. While Lia, a schoolgirl, befriends an eccentric neighbor, longs for a bicycle, and plots to ask Ceaușescu to return colors to the world, Constantin, a detective, is embroiled in a search for a local serial killer--while his superiors blame the murders on a bear for lack of a better suspect. At once absurd and touching, the book deftly illustrates the bleakness of Romanian life during this era. As I read, I deeply felt innocent Lia’s confusion about the state of the world alongside Constantin’s desperate hope for a better future for his son--while also seeing it as a cautionary tale to not let history repeat itself.
March 14, 2026
Eight-year-old Lia totally charmed me in Oana Aristide’s excellent piece of historical fiction about life in Ceausescu’s Romania. Seeing events unfold through her eyes and her attempts to rationalise them was innocent, uplifting and heartbreaking. I remember the fall of this regime, their total indifference to mass genocide and the dreadful reports about the treatment of children in orphanages (I don’t think I’ll ever forget that news footage), contrasted with the ridiculous collection of fur coats Elena Ceausescu owned, when her people were starving and in poverty.
I also enjoyed the relationship between detective Constantin and his young son, especially the nightly fairy stories, which had a fable-like quality and were his way of helping his son see the truth in what was going on around them.
Another favourite character was Lia’s elderly neighbour, whom she befriends in secret, and who gradually becomes more deranged as the plot advances.
It’s a sobering story which reimagines the end of a dreadful regime, beautifully brought to life by Rosalind Lailey’s empathetic narration.
Five stars from me, with thanks to NetGalley and Headline Audio for a chance to listen to an ALC. Astronaut publishes on 26 March.
I also enjoyed the relationship between detective Constantin and his young son, especially the nightly fairy stories, which had a fable-like quality and were his way of helping his son see the truth in what was going on around them.
Another favourite character was Lia’s elderly neighbour, whom she befriends in secret, and who gradually becomes more deranged as the plot advances.
It’s a sobering story which reimagines the end of a dreadful regime, beautifully brought to life by Rosalind Lailey’s empathetic narration.
Five stars from me, with thanks to NetGalley and Headline Audio for a chance to listen to an ALC. Astronaut publishes on 26 March.
July 20, 2026
I do not normally like satire but this was delicious. The author was born and lived in Romania until its independence.
The setting is Romania near the end of the Ceausescu dictatorship. Informants are ubiquitous. Fear is rampart. A young girl - Lia - wants to buy her mother a yellow vase for her birthday. She takes a German bill from the family's stash (knowing it is what is needed to obtain special things) and heads to the store. But to her shock the storeowner marches her home and confronts her mother about the money. Lia has no idea what is wrong but her mother agrees to the storeowner's terms to avoid him telling the authorities. So opens the book.
Then the scene changes to another town and a police detective - Constantin - whose assigned to solve the murder of a man by many cuts. His friend, the coroner, Titus says they resemble cuts made by hooks. Then it turns out there have been other unusual killings by hook-like stabs around the country. Constantin finds himself the "lead investigator." Constantin believes the public should be warned but his boss says no. Instead, the public is informed that a bear is on a rampage killing people and care needs to be taken.
Eventually the stories overlap. Great historical fiction in a quite innovative format.
The setting is Romania near the end of the Ceausescu dictatorship. Informants are ubiquitous. Fear is rampart. A young girl - Lia - wants to buy her mother a yellow vase for her birthday. She takes a German bill from the family's stash (knowing it is what is needed to obtain special things) and heads to the store. But to her shock the storeowner marches her home and confronts her mother about the money. Lia has no idea what is wrong but her mother agrees to the storeowner's terms to avoid him telling the authorities. So opens the book.
Then the scene changes to another town and a police detective - Constantin - whose assigned to solve the murder of a man by many cuts. His friend, the coroner, Titus says they resemble cuts made by hooks. Then it turns out there have been other unusual killings by hook-like stabs around the country. Constantin finds himself the "lead investigator." Constantin believes the public should be warned but his boss says no. Instead, the public is informed that a bear is on a rampage killing people and care needs to be taken.
Eventually the stories overlap. Great historical fiction in a quite innovative format.
March 5, 2026
I loved this wry and satirical tale set during the final months of Ceaușescu’s reign in communist Romania.
The characters are convincingly drawn and the story moves along between two perspectives. There is that of talkative little Lia who just wants to brighten the lives of those around her, but sometimes inadvertently makes things worse for her stressed out parents. Then there is Constantine, the police detective, who is trying to solve a series of gruesome murders, while navigating the often ludicrous constraints applied by the corrupt powers that be and who seizes the opportunity to compose bedtime fairytales for his precious four year old son if a spare moment arises.
The oppressiveness and paranoia of life in communist Romania under Ceaușescu is clearly portrayed but is balanced by the hope and optimism in our two main characters who are determined to do their best to make things as good as they can be despite the circumstances.
Overall this is a wonderful read and I highly recommend it!
My thanks to NetGalley and Headline Books for this much appreciated early copy of Astronaut.
The characters are convincingly drawn and the story moves along between two perspectives. There is that of talkative little Lia who just wants to brighten the lives of those around her, but sometimes inadvertently makes things worse for her stressed out parents. Then there is Constantine, the police detective, who is trying to solve a series of gruesome murders, while navigating the often ludicrous constraints applied by the corrupt powers that be and who seizes the opportunity to compose bedtime fairytales for his precious four year old son if a spare moment arises.
The oppressiveness and paranoia of life in communist Romania under Ceaușescu is clearly portrayed but is balanced by the hope and optimism in our two main characters who are determined to do their best to make things as good as they can be despite the circumstances.
Overall this is a wonderful read and I highly recommend it!
My thanks to NetGalley and Headline Books for this much appreciated early copy of Astronaut.
March 15, 2026
Astronaut! is set in Romania during the final days of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s communist regime in 1989, and it gave me a fascinating insight into what everyday life was like during that time. The atmosphere of uncertainty and restriction is really well captured, making the setting feel vivid and immersive.
At first I wasn’t entirely sure about the writing style - it felt a little unusual - but after a few chapters I settled into it and became genuinely invested in the lives of the two main characters. Their stories unfold in a way that feels very human and relatable despite the very different political and cultural context.
I found the book quite moving overall, with moments that really stayed with me. There’s also a thread of dark humour running through the story, which helps balance the heavier themes and adds a surprising warmth to the narrative.
Overall, this was an engaging and thoughtful read that offered both emotional depth and an interesting historical perspective. Definitely worth picking up if you enjoy character-driven stories set against real historical backdrops. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
At first I wasn’t entirely sure about the writing style - it felt a little unusual - but after a few chapters I settled into it and became genuinely invested in the lives of the two main characters. Their stories unfold in a way that feels very human and relatable despite the very different political and cultural context.
I found the book quite moving overall, with moments that really stayed with me. There’s also a thread of dark humour running through the story, which helps balance the heavier themes and adds a surprising warmth to the narrative.
Overall, this was an engaging and thoughtful read that offered both emotional depth and an interesting historical perspective. Definitely worth picking up if you enjoy character-driven stories set against real historical backdrops. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
March 5, 2026
Romania, 1989. Under a dictatorship, two stories unfold at the same time—will they collide?
A little girl with rebellious, freedom-loving ideas is obsessed with bringing back colors.
A cop with a conscience is trying to solve grisly crimes.
It was interesting to read about what life was like during that complicated part of history. The story is a good idea, and I found the ending consistent. The author did a good job depicting how it feels to be a little girl who doesn’t always understand her world.
But unfortunately, I had a hard time finishing it. I might have DNFed it if it hadn’t been an ARC. I didn’t always feel to pick it up, and while the murder mystery seemed appealing at first, it lost some of its initial appeal for me as the story progressed. Some characters—though I understand them—were difficult for me to connect with.
I am still glad that I finished it, as I still wanted to know how it would end.
It was my first approved ARC on NetGalley, so it will always feel special to me. And I must say that the cover design is amazing—not only is it beautiful, but it also makes total sense once you’ve read the book.
A little girl with rebellious, freedom-loving ideas is obsessed with bringing back colors.
A cop with a conscience is trying to solve grisly crimes.
It was interesting to read about what life was like during that complicated part of history. The story is a good idea, and I found the ending consistent. The author did a good job depicting how it feels to be a little girl who doesn’t always understand her world.
But unfortunately, I had a hard time finishing it. I might have DNFed it if it hadn’t been an ARC. I didn’t always feel to pick it up, and while the murder mystery seemed appealing at first, it lost some of its initial appeal for me as the story progressed. Some characters—though I understand them—were difficult for me to connect with.
I am still glad that I finished it, as I still wanted to know how it would end.
It was my first approved ARC on NetGalley, so it will always feel special to me. And I must say that the cover design is amazing—not only is it beautiful, but it also makes total sense once you’ve read the book.
July 22, 2026
A precocious little girl growing up in a totalitarian regime asks the wrong questions, makes questionable decisions and manages to get herself in all kinds of trouble as she navigates everyday life. Meanwhile Konstantin investigates a grisly series of deaths that seem a political inconvenience as well as an intriguing mystery. A dark but funny novel that really does an excellent job of building tension and has an incomparable and fascinating eyes view of the absurdity and incongruity of a dictatorship rule and it's contradictions! Two engaging and flawed characters lead the charge through this excellent read.
July 23, 2026
Set in Romania in 1988 under Ceaușescu’s dictatorship, the story follows Lia, an eight-year-old girl, and Constantin, a police officer investigating a series of murders. As their stories come together, the mystery becomes more gripping, with dark humour throughout.
❤️Loved
Seeing life under a dictatorship through a little girl’s eyes
Ceausescu appearing as a character in the story
How relevant the story still feels today
The dark humour
👎Didn’t work for me
The conclusion felt a bit rushed. I was expecting more details but the ending felt rather vague to me.
📚Overall
I’m really glad I picked this one up. It was a darkly funny, moving and thought provoking read that I really enjoyed. If you’re looking for a different kind of historical fiction/crime, I’d definitely recommend giving it a try.
❤️Loved
Seeing life under a dictatorship through a little girl’s eyes
Ceausescu appearing as a character in the story
How relevant the story still feels today
The dark humour
👎Didn’t work for me
The conclusion felt a bit rushed. I was expecting more details but the ending felt rather vague to me.
📚Overall
I’m really glad I picked this one up. It was a darkly funny, moving and thought provoking read that I really enjoyed. If you’re looking for a different kind of historical fiction/crime, I’d definitely recommend giving it a try.
July 5, 2026
Interesting read. It held my attention for the most part, although I did find it hard to get into at times.
I enjoyed learning more about what life would have been like during this time, and under a communist regime. The relationships between characters was well done.
For some reason I was confused at the end, and had to re-read the final chapter to figure it all out. I think I'm in the minority here though.
I enjoyed learning more about what life would have been like during this time, and under a communist regime. The relationships between characters was well done.
For some reason I was confused at the end, and had to re-read the final chapter to figure it all out. I think I'm in the minority here though.
July 30, 2026
Just not for me
August 4, 2026
An EXTRAORDINARY debut. Great story,several layers,thought provoking, wonderful chacracters.
July 26, 2026
I know it’s a good book because I didn’t even consider docking points for the most annoying child protagonist I’ve ever seen. Self-consciously annoying, but still! Grinch mode activated.
We’re a few months before the fall of the Ceausescu regime in Romania in 1989 and a police detective is trying to investigate a serial killer in a country where criminals aren’t allowed to exist (criminals are a capitalist thing after all). Unable to warn the public of the actual danger, the police comes up with a great idea - they’ll blame the killings on a murderous bear!
Meanwhile, the world’s most annoying child is constantly butting against the repressive society she’s trapped in, calling kosmonauts astronauts (seditious), hanging out with known political agitators (dangerous), and trying to buy stuff at a security service informant’s store using foreign currency (plain stupid). Honestly, she never stops. If she’d lived in Stalin’s Russia, she would’ve gotten her entire apartment block sent to the gulag with what she gets up to.
It’s not really a police procedural - we don’t get any clues on what the murders are about until very late in the book when the pace really picks up, which I would’ve normally complained about, but this just isn’t the narrative’s focus. It’s about the absurdity and soul crushing nature of living in a totalitarian system and the ways people are forced to repress themselves and others to survive.
The characters are great (I loved the annoying girl’s exasperated parents who keep trying and failing to convince her not to get them sent to prison) and it’s a pretty quick read that really places you in the middle of a dictatorship that kind of flies under the radar compared to the USSR and other contemporary regimes.
The only thing I wasn’t too sure about was the ending - , but that’s barely a complaint really, I understood why it served the book’s narrative arc. Pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this overall.
We’re a few months before the fall of the Ceausescu regime in Romania in 1989 and a police detective is trying to investigate a serial killer in a country where criminals aren’t allowed to exist (criminals are a capitalist thing after all). Unable to warn the public of the actual danger, the police comes up with a great idea - they’ll blame the killings on a murderous bear!
Meanwhile, the world’s most annoying child is constantly butting against the repressive society she’s trapped in, calling kosmonauts astronauts (seditious), hanging out with known political agitators (dangerous), and trying to buy stuff at a security service informant’s store using foreign currency (plain stupid). Honestly, she never stops. If she’d lived in Stalin’s Russia, she would’ve gotten her entire apartment block sent to the gulag with what she gets up to.
It’s not really a police procedural - we don’t get any clues on what the murders are about until very late in the book when the pace really picks up, which I would’ve normally complained about, but this just isn’t the narrative’s focus. It’s about the absurdity and soul crushing nature of living in a totalitarian system and the ways people are forced to repress themselves and others to survive.
The characters are great (I loved the annoying girl’s exasperated parents who keep trying and failing to convince her not to get them sent to prison) and it’s a pretty quick read that really places you in the middle of a dictatorship that kind of flies under the radar compared to the USSR and other contemporary regimes.
The only thing I wasn’t too sure about was the ending - , but that’s barely a complaint really, I understood why it served the book’s narrative arc. Pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this overall.
June 7, 2026
Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC!
What a delightful yet harrowing book. This is historical fiction set in the Romanian dictatorship on the 1980s. I have read Ruta Sepyts novel I Must Betray You - so I was somewhat familiar with the history. This definitely seems to take liberties, in a whimsical fashion.
This follows a little girl who loves colors and her getting roped into a scheme with an older neighbor that she doesn’t understand the consequences of. Also there is a string of murders that a fairy-tale writing Police officer is in charge of solving.
This had some really sweet moments while also highlighting the absolute madness that exists in a communist regime where everyone is happy to snitch on anyone. The issues the parents in this book face really had me reflecting. How do you explain something like that to a child. We could be arrested and taken away from you just because of a silly story you tell or a picture you drew 😓 how do you keep a child safe and preserve them on that environment?
Great book that was comical but serious all at the same time.
What a delightful yet harrowing book. This is historical fiction set in the Romanian dictatorship on the 1980s. I have read Ruta Sepyts novel I Must Betray You - so I was somewhat familiar with the history. This definitely seems to take liberties, in a whimsical fashion.
This follows a little girl who loves colors and her getting roped into a scheme with an older neighbor that she doesn’t understand the consequences of. Also there is a string of murders that a fairy-tale writing Police officer is in charge of solving.
This had some really sweet moments while also highlighting the absolute madness that exists in a communist regime where everyone is happy to snitch on anyone. The issues the parents in this book face really had me reflecting. How do you explain something like that to a child. We could be arrested and taken away from you just because of a silly story you tell or a picture you drew 😓 how do you keep a child safe and preserve them on that environment?
Great book that was comical but serious all at the same time.
July 13, 2026
Real Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: A tense, darkly funny, and politically resonant novel of life under authoritarian rule.
Romania, 1989, the twilight of Ceausescu’s dictatorship: A time when every neighbor, every friend, every family member may be an informant for the regime. When news emerges of a man-eating bear terrorizing the country, two bright lives collide. Constantin, an idealistic police detective—prone to daydreaming and scribbling fairytales in his notebook for his four-year-old son—is tasked with solving the string of mysterious deaths. Lia, a rebellious, inquisitive schoolgirl pining for more color in her life, is unwittingly drawn into an elderly neighbor’s secret plot against the regime. The decisions they make amid the constant gray skies and fear of speaking out will have sweeping consequences—for themselves, for their families, and for their country. Astronaut! is a chilling, suspenseful, and resonant tale by a dynamic new novelist.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: What a claustrophobic read. At eery turn there's a wall, at every corner there's an uneasy dread of what you'll find when you turn it. Even the fun of a kid wanting to give Mama a special birthday gift...disastrous, unmitigatable harm follows.
I was uneasy, I was unnerved, and I was totally hooked. I stopped feeling like I was reading a novel pretty quickly. I winced, chuckled hollowly, got staring prickles, I felt as much a part of the cold greyness of 1989 Romania as a guy in the sunshiney summer of 2026 New York City is likely ever to feel. Lia is in the midst of things she does not realize are seismic shifts. Her sense of self-preservation hasn't taught her what safety is yet. She barrels into danger as she searches for the vibrancy and color of her home country. Honestly I wondered where she might've seen that, the eternal dankness and foggy grey of 1989 Romania was so pervasive.
Then we shift our story attention to detective Constantin, tasked with solving a brutal death, one that lends itself in its mindless ferocity of commission to the spurious explanation of a bear attack.
One that just happens to take place near the hunting party at Dictator Ceaușescu's hunting lodge.
These narratives don't appear to be connected at first. Constantin escapes from the Orwellian "investigation" he's performing to instructions from...well...Securitate (the secret police)? who can be sure, they're very secretive these secret police never doing anything directly that Constantin's seen just by innuendo and "they said"-style rumors. He writes fairy tales for his much-loved son Sandu. The fairy tales are so completely adorable and so trenchant that I want illustrated books of them!
Sandu's story-lessons in how things really are in the world are all so trenchant and targeted that they become our primary means to follow the backgrounded collapse of the Ceaușescu regime. It's a clever and enjoyable way to tell me a larger story behind the story I'm paying attention to. More violent vicious deaths occur that Constantin feels he needs to escape from absorbing, as he turns to creating stories about an astronaut (not the Party-approved term "cosmonaut" please note) to make up in his mind for the nonsensical stories titillating the people about bear attacks with escape from Earth's surly bonds entirely.
Lia's absolute unwillingness to dim down her search for color, for life, in her country and her school leads her into a dangerous association with a real honest to goodness rebel. It's something she puts her whole heart into, this small role in a small eddy of the current of rebellion in 1989 Romania, leading her into a dangerous conflict with a Party official's daughter in her school. She is clearly, obviously the winner of a contest that girl was supposed to win..."he's at the top of the page, the bravest explorer of all. She gives him a light blue helmet and matching spacesuit, and he's smiling through the visor. Why the smile? Because he has just realized that the view from the outer space is like being deep inside a Christmas tree, and he is never afraid. Lia smiles back at him. She names the drawing, flattening the black letters across the surface of the sun, 'Astronaut!'"...whose prize was a face-to-face with Ceaușescu himself. Special classes, intensive training, the usual efforts to make sure no tinge of reality can intrude on the leader's dreamworld.
Lia and her family figure in Constantin's investigation...the part without the bear story in it...and as Lia's meeting with Ceaușescu draws closer, more and more strands of story logic bind them together. We discover Constantin's dark, painful secret; we watch Lia as she draws closer to murderous scum without feeling the appropriate level of fear; we are *frantic* to save whomever we can from the explosion looming.
It's a novel with a satisfying resolution. I will say nothing of the ending.
"We've grown numb. It's like this, kid: in wars, you have to face guns and cannons and soldiers, and the situation is somehow so obviously serious that we mobilise our courage, and our will, and so on. But here, we are supposed to be heroic at our kitchen table, at the factory, on the bus. We are supposed to risk terrible consequences just for saying some perfectly commonsense thing. It never seems worth it."
{Lia}'s pretending to listen, but really she's thinking how lucky she is Comrade Mantea is her friend. He talks complete gibberish but it never feels like he's lying to her. He's nice to her, and he has ideas, not only about grown-up problems but about everyone's problems.
Don't kid yourself: Oana Aristide will show you a mirror, she will shine a harsh raking light on you while she does it.
But she sees everyone's problems in the unflattering shadows.
The Publisher Says: A tense, darkly funny, and politically resonant novel of life under authoritarian rule.
Romania, 1989, the twilight of Ceausescu’s dictatorship: A time when every neighbor, every friend, every family member may be an informant for the regime. When news emerges of a man-eating bear terrorizing the country, two bright lives collide. Constantin, an idealistic police detective—prone to daydreaming and scribbling fairytales in his notebook for his four-year-old son—is tasked with solving the string of mysterious deaths. Lia, a rebellious, inquisitive schoolgirl pining for more color in her life, is unwittingly drawn into an elderly neighbor’s secret plot against the regime. The decisions they make amid the constant gray skies and fear of speaking out will have sweeping consequences—for themselves, for their families, and for their country. Astronaut! is a chilling, suspenseful, and resonant tale by a dynamic new novelist.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: What a claustrophobic read. At eery turn there's a wall, at every corner there's an uneasy dread of what you'll find when you turn it. Even the fun of a kid wanting to give Mama a special birthday gift...disastrous, unmitigatable harm follows.
I was uneasy, I was unnerved, and I was totally hooked. I stopped feeling like I was reading a novel pretty quickly. I winced, chuckled hollowly, got staring prickles, I felt as much a part of the cold greyness of 1989 Romania as a guy in the sunshiney summer of 2026 New York City is likely ever to feel. Lia is in the midst of things she does not realize are seismic shifts. Her sense of self-preservation hasn't taught her what safety is yet. She barrels into danger as she searches for the vibrancy and color of her home country. Honestly I wondered where she might've seen that, the eternal dankness and foggy grey of 1989 Romania was so pervasive.
Then we shift our story attention to detective Constantin, tasked with solving a brutal death, one that lends itself in its mindless ferocity of commission to the spurious explanation of a bear attack.
One that just happens to take place near the hunting party at Dictator Ceaușescu's hunting lodge.
These narratives don't appear to be connected at first. Constantin escapes from the Orwellian "investigation" he's performing to instructions from...well...Securitate (the secret police)? who can be sure, they're very secretive these secret police never doing anything directly that Constantin's seen just by innuendo and "they said"-style rumors. He writes fairy tales for his much-loved son Sandu. The fairy tales are so completely adorable and so trenchant that I want illustrated books of them!
Sandu's story-lessons in how things really are in the world are all so trenchant and targeted that they become our primary means to follow the backgrounded collapse of the Ceaușescu regime. It's a clever and enjoyable way to tell me a larger story behind the story I'm paying attention to. More violent vicious deaths occur that Constantin feels he needs to escape from absorbing, as he turns to creating stories about an astronaut (not the Party-approved term "cosmonaut" please note) to make up in his mind for the nonsensical stories titillating the people about bear attacks with escape from Earth's surly bonds entirely.
Lia's absolute unwillingness to dim down her search for color, for life, in her country and her school leads her into a dangerous association with a real honest to goodness rebel. It's something she puts her whole heart into, this small role in a small eddy of the current of rebellion in 1989 Romania, leading her into a dangerous conflict with a Party official's daughter in her school. She is clearly, obviously the winner of a contest that girl was supposed to win..."he's at the top of the page, the bravest explorer of all. She gives him a light blue helmet and matching spacesuit, and he's smiling through the visor. Why the smile? Because he has just realized that the view from the outer space is like being deep inside a Christmas tree, and he is never afraid. Lia smiles back at him. She names the drawing, flattening the black letters across the surface of the sun, 'Astronaut!'"...whose prize was a face-to-face with Ceaușescu himself. Special classes, intensive training, the usual efforts to make sure no tinge of reality can intrude on the leader's dreamworld.
Lia and her family figure in Constantin's investigation...the part without the bear story in it...and as Lia's meeting with Ceaușescu draws closer, more and more strands of story logic bind them together. We discover Constantin's dark, painful secret; we watch Lia as she draws closer to murderous scum without feeling the appropriate level of fear; we are *frantic* to save whomever we can from the explosion looming.
It's a novel with a satisfying resolution. I will say nothing of the ending.
"We've grown numb. It's like this, kid: in wars, you have to face guns and cannons and soldiers, and the situation is somehow so obviously serious that we mobilise our courage, and our will, and so on. But here, we are supposed to be heroic at our kitchen table, at the factory, on the bus. We are supposed to risk terrible consequences just for saying some perfectly commonsense thing. It never seems worth it."
{Lia}'s pretending to listen, but really she's thinking how lucky she is Comrade Mantea is her friend. He talks complete gibberish but it never feels like he's lying to her. He's nice to her, and he has ideas, not only about grown-up problems but about everyone's problems.
Don't kid yourself: Oana Aristide will show you a mirror, she will shine a harsh raking light on you while she does it.
But she sees everyone's problems in the unflattering shadows.
April 27, 2026
(ARC in audio format provided by NetGalley.)
Romania, 1989.
In a world where colors were gradually vanishing, where an alleged serial-killing bear roamed the land. Fear ran in whispering undercurrents thorughout the land.
Lia was constantly baffled when confronted with the fury of grown-ups when she was genuinely trying to do something good: the vase intended as a present for her mother, the drawing competition, the fish map and the astronaut..."Why is everybody always mad at her for nothing?" We follow Lia through the process of her special classes in preparation of meeting Ceauşescu, her confusion in a world losing its colors, and her friendship with Comrade Mantea and their ultimate quest to reclaim colors for everyone.
In the meantime, brutal killings across the country were reported, but to appease the public, these attacks were attributed to a certain "bear". We then met the detective policeman Constantin, who writes whimsical stories for his son in between tasks or during tedious monologues of his superior with a green inkpen. "Green, now, to him, is the color of freedom."
Lia and Constantin were somewhat similar in their innocent beliefs and pure hopes for a better world; the former due to juvenility, and the latter owing to idealistic views (quoting Titus: "Sometimes you're like a child, you think there's good and evil in this world, where they're like elegant tennis players sticking to the rules in their respective halves..")
There were two passages that stood out to me which echoed with the book title:
"Can it really be different elsewhere? Constantin thinks. In other countries, and other times, could things be so different? Maybe this is it. That's all there is on offer here. And really he should be dreaming of traveling in outer space. He imagined a lone rocket, floating happily among the stars. No lies, no past mistakes to disentangle, pure hope of kind new worlds."
And where Lia drew her astronaut:
"He's at the top of the page, the bravest explorer of all. She gives him a light blue helmet and matching spacesuit, and he's smiling through the visor. Why the smile? Because he has just realized that the view from the outer space is like being deep inside a Christmas tree, and he is never afraid. Lia smiles back at him. She names the drawing, flattening the black letters across the surface of the sun, 'Astronaut!'"
This very quality contrasted the quiet oppression and the hushed terrors under a totalitarian regime. It was precisely as Constantin described, "death by little cuts": if you react immediately at the small discomforts, you'd be accused of overreaction; and if you wait until it has culminated into a grave situation, they'd question why you had never said anything in the midst of this absurdity. But what is the demarcation of the "reasonable" level of suffering we must endure, and what thoughts or actions were permitted so as not to be deemed provocative? Depicted achingly real in this dialogue:
"Seditious?" Lia says. What does that even mean?
"Everything! All of it! Every single thought in your head!"
For there will be endless ways to make such accusations, and nothing is ever truly safe. Even an act as benign as holding up a single blank sheet of paper could be framed as turbulence and rioting.
As Constantin told Sandu after his last bedtime story, "It will not be easy, but the boy knows he has his entire life before him, so he must keep looking for a better place."
"To new beginnings."
To every single person, in the year of 1989 and beyond, who fought for freedom, for more radiant colors, and for light and voices.
Major kudos to the narrator Rosalind Lailey for the very animated delivery!
Romania, 1989.
In a world where colors were gradually vanishing, where an alleged serial-killing bear roamed the land. Fear ran in whispering undercurrents thorughout the land.
Lia was constantly baffled when confronted with the fury of grown-ups when she was genuinely trying to do something good: the vase intended as a present for her mother, the drawing competition, the fish map and the astronaut..."Why is everybody always mad at her for nothing?" We follow Lia through the process of her special classes in preparation of meeting Ceauşescu, her confusion in a world losing its colors, and her friendship with Comrade Mantea and their ultimate quest to reclaim colors for everyone.
In the meantime, brutal killings across the country were reported, but to appease the public, these attacks were attributed to a certain "bear". We then met the detective policeman Constantin, who writes whimsical stories for his son in between tasks or during tedious monologues of his superior with a green inkpen. "Green, now, to him, is the color of freedom."
Lia and Constantin were somewhat similar in their innocent beliefs and pure hopes for a better world; the former due to juvenility, and the latter owing to idealistic views (quoting Titus: "Sometimes you're like a child, you think there's good and evil in this world, where they're like elegant tennis players sticking to the rules in their respective halves..")
There were two passages that stood out to me which echoed with the book title:
"Can it really be different elsewhere? Constantin thinks. In other countries, and other times, could things be so different? Maybe this is it. That's all there is on offer here. And really he should be dreaming of traveling in outer space. He imagined a lone rocket, floating happily among the stars. No lies, no past mistakes to disentangle, pure hope of kind new worlds."
And where Lia drew her astronaut:
"He's at the top of the page, the bravest explorer of all. She gives him a light blue helmet and matching spacesuit, and he's smiling through the visor. Why the smile? Because he has just realized that the view from the outer space is like being deep inside a Christmas tree, and he is never afraid. Lia smiles back at him. She names the drawing, flattening the black letters across the surface of the sun, 'Astronaut!'"
This very quality contrasted the quiet oppression and the hushed terrors under a totalitarian regime. It was precisely as Constantin described, "death by little cuts": if you react immediately at the small discomforts, you'd be accused of overreaction; and if you wait until it has culminated into a grave situation, they'd question why you had never said anything in the midst of this absurdity. But what is the demarcation of the "reasonable" level of suffering we must endure, and what thoughts or actions were permitted so as not to be deemed provocative? Depicted achingly real in this dialogue:
"Seditious?" Lia says. What does that even mean?
"Everything! All of it! Every single thought in your head!"
For there will be endless ways to make such accusations, and nothing is ever truly safe. Even an act as benign as holding up a single blank sheet of paper could be framed as turbulence and rioting.
As Constantin told Sandu after his last bedtime story, "It will not be easy, but the boy knows he has his entire life before him, so he must keep looking for a better place."
"To new beginnings."
To every single person, in the year of 1989 and beyond, who fought for freedom, for more radiant colors, and for light and voices.
Major kudos to the narrator Rosalind Lailey for the very animated delivery!
June 6, 2026
Can it really be different elsewhere, Constantin thinks? In other countries and other times. Could things be so different? Maybe this is it, that's all there is on offer here, and really he should be dreaming of travelling in outer space. He imagines a lone rocket, floating happily among the stars. No lies, no past mistakes to disentangle. Pure hope of kind new worlds.
The Romanian born (and raised – until the fall of Communism), macro-economists second novel, it is an explicit mix of coming-of-age story and detective novel which serves as something of a folk-tale-infused (but also at times chilling) satire of the last days of the Ceaușescu regime and as an urgently present-day fable for the need for action in the face of creeping erosions of freedom.
The novel has two alternating and at points interacting storylines.
In the first a young and almost unconsciously rebellious young girl Lia takes some money from her parent’s secret draw to buy her mother a present – the story begins with her being uncomfortably walked back to her house by the creepy shopkeeper who we (not she) realises sexually blackmails her mother over what is illegal German currency. Later the shopkeeper is found murdered – and suspicions swirl around the family although this is only one of a series of escapades Lia naively draws her despairing (and frightened) family into – culminating in her inadvertendly winning a competition to make a presentation to the President (she determined to tell him that the colour has been stolen from the country’s grey towns and streets). Meanwhile she befriends a local eccentric and dissident (only protected from arrest and worse by his son’s high up Party role) and he tries to persuade her to give him details of the President’s itinerary and to take him a special package.
In the second a detective Constantin is put in charge of investigating a murder which quickly becomes the first in what seems to be the actions of a serial killer – taking place across the country and with the victims murdered without witnesses by someone who seems to know their private regimes (the first for example murdered at a remote lake where he fishes). The wounds seem consistent with a hook or claw – and in attempt to warn the public without admitting there is a killer, the police invent a fictitious bear (although then find themselves drawn in to investigating actual bears – including both a travelling circus and bears imported for Presidential hunting). At one stage its realised that the murder of the shopkeeper was actually the first murder – and Constantin meets Lia and his family.
Constantin as a main point of view character was an addition to the novel (which was initially meant to have an autobiographically inspired Lia at its heart) – but his chapters worked better for me due to their depth. He and his wife have a marriage marked by unspoken recrimination which we quickly realise is due to the death of their daughter some years back (only as the book progresses do we realise that this was due to a principled decision by him to refuse to take advantage of state power – and there is a particularly memorable scene when the President’s wife callously dismisses his moral stance as weakness). And with his son – he tells a series of folk tales he invented, each in effect a clever fable on how to deal with a totalitarian regime and in effect functioning as a microcosm of the novel.
And all the threads are drawn together at the novel’s end – which solves the serial killer mystery (perhaps a little too neatly) but counterpoints this with a deliberate sense of ambiguity about the outcome of Lia’s Presidential meeting.
Overall, this is an intelligent and memorably different novel.
Review of advance copy received from Sonstiges
"Can it really be different elsewhere, Constantin thinks? In other countries and other times. Could things be so different? Maybe this is it, that's all there is on offer here, and really he should be dreaming of travelling in outer space. He imagines a lone rocket, floating happily among the stars. No lies, no past mistakes to disentangle. Pure hope of kind new worlds."
A solid murder mystery meets an occasionally harrowing tale of oppression and fear, but also small acts of resistance, taking place in communist Romania 1989. It's smartly divided up, providing different perspectives, from the eyes of an innocent child defying the system without really knowing what all of it actually means, up to a disillusioned, but eventually somewhat nevertheless hopeful detective entangled in the mechanism of an oppressive security state.
Oana Aristide paints a complex picture of Romania on the cusp of change, balancing the levity, absurdity and horror of her story really well. But to me, she could have gone even farther, in a fantastical sense. Still, a good read.
----
At first, she thinks that Comrade Mantea is laughing; he is heaving and has covered his face with his hands. But no. She sinks in her chair.
'Go home,' he says through his sobs.
It's only hours later, when she's in bed, that she comes up with the right thing to say to Comrade Mantea to make him feel better. It's something all grown-ups need telling, especially Mother and Dad: they worry too much for people who are good.
She will have to explain that she doesn't mean 'good' as in 'do-your-homework good', but the good of fairy tales, of parents who take care of their children, of nice, friendly neighbours. Of people who want more colour. It's as if they don't know that everything always ends well for the good ones.
----
In the evening the three of them sit down for the news, Constantin with one eye on Sandu. About a year ago, the boy went through a phase when he would angrily shout "The rat! The bad rat!' as soon as Ceauşescu's face appeared on the screen, and Constantin is still anxious for the first few minutes of patriotic chants and poems.
There was nothing political about Sandu's disgust, nothing the boy had heard from him or Tina: out of all the faces in the world, he just couldn't stand this one. It was almost like an allergic reaction. They had tried everything, down to showing him pictures of actual rodents, pointing out differences, but he only stopped once they threatened him: no playtime, no fairy tales, no cocoa in the morning.
It had been almost funny, in an awful way. Constantin remembers feeling pride that his four-year-old son could see through the televised chants and the fake smiles and recognise this thug of thugs, this erstwhile cold-blooded enforcer, for the filthy rat that he is.
----
Comrade Mantea is staring into thin air. He looks like he is thinking very hard.
'We've grown numb. It's like this, kid: in wars, you have to face guns and cannons and soldiers, and the situation is somehow so obviously serious that we mobilise our courage, and our will, and so on. But here, we are supposed to be heroic at our kitchen table, at the factory, on the bus. We are supposed to risk terrible consequences just for saying some perfectly commonsense thing. It never seems worth it.'
She's pretending to listen, but really she's thinking how lucky she is Comrade Mantea is her friend. He talks complete gibberish but it never feels like he's lying to her. He's nice to her, and he has ideas, not only about grown-up problems but about everyone's problems.
A solid murder mystery meets an occasionally harrowing tale of oppression and fear, but also small acts of resistance, taking place in communist Romania 1989. It's smartly divided up, providing different perspectives, from the eyes of an innocent child defying the system without really knowing what all of it actually means, up to a disillusioned, but eventually somewhat nevertheless hopeful detective entangled in the mechanism of an oppressive security state.
Oana Aristide paints a complex picture of Romania on the cusp of change, balancing the levity, absurdity and horror of her story really well. But to me, she could have gone even farther, in a fantastical sense. Still, a good read.
----
At first, she thinks that Comrade Mantea is laughing; he is heaving and has covered his face with his hands. But no. She sinks in her chair.
'Go home,' he says through his sobs.
It's only hours later, when she's in bed, that she comes up with the right thing to say to Comrade Mantea to make him feel better. It's something all grown-ups need telling, especially Mother and Dad: they worry too much for people who are good.
She will have to explain that she doesn't mean 'good' as in 'do-your-homework good', but the good of fairy tales, of parents who take care of their children, of nice, friendly neighbours. Of people who want more colour. It's as if they don't know that everything always ends well for the good ones.
----
In the evening the three of them sit down for the news, Constantin with one eye on Sandu. About a year ago, the boy went through a phase when he would angrily shout "The rat! The bad rat!' as soon as Ceauşescu's face appeared on the screen, and Constantin is still anxious for the first few minutes of patriotic chants and poems.
There was nothing political about Sandu's disgust, nothing the boy had heard from him or Tina: out of all the faces in the world, he just couldn't stand this one. It was almost like an allergic reaction. They had tried everything, down to showing him pictures of actual rodents, pointing out differences, but he only stopped once they threatened him: no playtime, no fairy tales, no cocoa in the morning.
It had been almost funny, in an awful way. Constantin remembers feeling pride that his four-year-old son could see through the televised chants and the fake smiles and recognise this thug of thugs, this erstwhile cold-blooded enforcer, for the filthy rat that he is.
----
Comrade Mantea is staring into thin air. He looks like he is thinking very hard.
'We've grown numb. It's like this, kid: in wars, you have to face guns and cannons and soldiers, and the situation is somehow so obviously serious that we mobilise our courage, and our will, and so on. But here, we are supposed to be heroic at our kitchen table, at the factory, on the bus. We are supposed to risk terrible consequences just for saying some perfectly commonsense thing. It never seems worth it.'
She's pretending to listen, but really she's thinking how lucky she is Comrade Mantea is her friend. He talks complete gibberish but it never feels like he's lying to her. He's nice to her, and he has ideas, not only about grown-up problems but about everyone's problems.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
“Astronaut!” is, on its surface, a police procedural set in Romania during the final year of Nicolae Ceaușescu's dictatorship. Beneath the murder investigation, however, Oana Aristide is more interested in examining what life feels like under an authoritarian regime, where fear, bureaucracy, shortages, and the ever-present possibility of informers shape everyday existence.
The novel follows two engaging protagonists. Lia is a gifted young artist who wins a school contest with the prize of meeting the country's "dear leader." Her longing for color in a bleak, grey world becomes an effective metaphor for the emotional deprivation of life under the regime. She also forms a relationship with an elderly man who appears to be a mentor, but whose motives prove considerably more complicated. Running parallel to her story is Constantin, an idealistic police detective investigating a series of seemingly random murders scattered across Romania. Constantin is one of the novel's most appealing characters. He is a devoted father who reads fairy tales to his young son and comes across as fundamentally humane rather than ideological. Although he serves the state, he remains committed to serving ordinary people, and his conversations with a worldly pathologist provide some of the novel's more thoughtful moments.
The mystery itself is competently constructed. One intriguing theory, promulgated by the regime, suggests that the killings are not the work of a serial murderer at all but of an escaped bear roaming the countryside. Unfortunately, the investigation develops at a leisurely pace that occasionally saps the suspense. The final act, however, delivers an engaging and genuinely surprising climax that rewards readers who remain patient.
What impressed me most was Aristide's depiction of the suffocating atmosphere of totalitarianism. The repeated references to the "dear leader" carry an unmistakable note of irony, reflecting both the population's resentment and the constant anxiety that dictators inspire and experience themselves. Although the novel is firmly rooted in Romania in 1989, its themes feel far from historical. The culture of fear, surveillance, and personality cults that Aristide portrays remains recognizable in places such as North Korea today.
One aspect that puzzled me was the title. The image of astronauts—especially with the added punctuation— has so little prominence in the narrative that I never felt I understood its significance. I was also surprised to see the novel marketed as humorous. Aside from a few isolated moments, I found the tone overwhelmingly grey, tense, and threatening, only becoming cautiously hopeful near the conclusion.
Ultimately, “Astronaut!” succeeds better as a portrait of a society living under oppression than as a thriller. Its historical setting and moral concerns are compelling, and its protagonists are worth spending time with, but the slow pacing and somewhat opaque symbolism kept me from becoming fully invested.
The novel follows two engaging protagonists. Lia is a gifted young artist who wins a school contest with the prize of meeting the country's "dear leader." Her longing for color in a bleak, grey world becomes an effective metaphor for the emotional deprivation of life under the regime. She also forms a relationship with an elderly man who appears to be a mentor, but whose motives prove considerably more complicated. Running parallel to her story is Constantin, an idealistic police detective investigating a series of seemingly random murders scattered across Romania. Constantin is one of the novel's most appealing characters. He is a devoted father who reads fairy tales to his young son and comes across as fundamentally humane rather than ideological. Although he serves the state, he remains committed to serving ordinary people, and his conversations with a worldly pathologist provide some of the novel's more thoughtful moments.
The mystery itself is competently constructed. One intriguing theory, promulgated by the regime, suggests that the killings are not the work of a serial murderer at all but of an escaped bear roaming the countryside. Unfortunately, the investigation develops at a leisurely pace that occasionally saps the suspense. The final act, however, delivers an engaging and genuinely surprising climax that rewards readers who remain patient.
What impressed me most was Aristide's depiction of the suffocating atmosphere of totalitarianism. The repeated references to the "dear leader" carry an unmistakable note of irony, reflecting both the population's resentment and the constant anxiety that dictators inspire and experience themselves. Although the novel is firmly rooted in Romania in 1989, its themes feel far from historical. The culture of fear, surveillance, and personality cults that Aristide portrays remains recognizable in places such as North Korea today.
One aspect that puzzled me was the title. The image of astronauts—especially with the added punctuation— has so little prominence in the narrative that I never felt I understood its significance. I was also surprised to see the novel marketed as humorous. Aside from a few isolated moments, I found the tone overwhelmingly grey, tense, and threatening, only becoming cautiously hopeful near the conclusion.
Ultimately, “Astronaut!” succeeds better as a portrait of a society living under oppression than as a thriller. Its historical setting and moral concerns are compelling, and its protagonists are worth spending time with, but the slow pacing and somewhat opaque symbolism kept me from becoming fully invested.
July 29, 2026
Freedom!
The book’s heroine is an 8-year-old girl in Romania with the proper name Lia. I bought it for my 8-year-old granddaughter nicknamed Lia, although the language level is such that she’ll likely have to wait a couple of years before she can understand all the words. The other reason I bought the book is that it deals with a concept I hold very dear: freedom, the ability to choose.
The book is ultimately about character, as indicated in the opening inscription: “If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.” Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations.” And as the “Astronaut” book depicts, “Lies do not lead to liberty!”
The author then deftly expands the intellectual power of character into an emotional sense of life, in a spectrum of lived experience from childhood to old age. Lia’s attraction to colors is perhaps the most vivid example, showing how authoritarianism brought fear and darkness, both figuratively and literally, to creep over the land behind the Iron Curtain.
IMHO, pronouns placed before proper names throughout the book sometimes leave you wondering just exactly who is being described. Additionally, the author somewhat leaves it up to your imagination to figure out the specifics of what happened in the end. And, as a practiced “Murder-he-read” sleuth, I figured out this fiction book’s “who-dunnit” by page 154 of 263 numbered pages. But see if you can beat me; it probably won’t be easy!
For those not familiar with the actual history not mentioned in this fiction book: There were three attempts to assassinate Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania’s most infamous autocrat, during the December 1989 Revolution. However, he and his wife, Elana, were ultimately captured and executed by firing squad on 25 December 1989, following a summary trial by an Extraordinary Military Tribunal. The charges: Genocide – over 60,000 victims; Subversion of state power by organizing armed actions against the people and state power; Destruction of public property by destroying and damaging buildings, explosions in cities, etc.; Undermining the national economy; Attempting to flee the country using over $1 billion deposited in foreign banks.
All in all, however, as an exploration of character involving a young student and a mature detective engaged in solving a serial-murder mystery, this is a wonderful book and highly recommended!
For those interested in more examples of how character counts, check out George Washington's Liberty Key: Mount Vernon's Bastille Key – the Mystery and Magic of Its Body, Mind, and Soul, a best-seller at Mount Vernon.
The book’s heroine is an 8-year-old girl in Romania with the proper name Lia. I bought it for my 8-year-old granddaughter nicknamed Lia, although the language level is such that she’ll likely have to wait a couple of years before she can understand all the words. The other reason I bought the book is that it deals with a concept I hold very dear: freedom, the ability to choose.
The book is ultimately about character, as indicated in the opening inscription: “If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.” Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations.” And as the “Astronaut” book depicts, “Lies do not lead to liberty!”
The author then deftly expands the intellectual power of character into an emotional sense of life, in a spectrum of lived experience from childhood to old age. Lia’s attraction to colors is perhaps the most vivid example, showing how authoritarianism brought fear and darkness, both figuratively and literally, to creep over the land behind the Iron Curtain.
IMHO, pronouns placed before proper names throughout the book sometimes leave you wondering just exactly who is being described. Additionally, the author somewhat leaves it up to your imagination to figure out the specifics of what happened in the end. And, as a practiced “Murder-he-read” sleuth, I figured out this fiction book’s “who-dunnit” by page 154 of 263 numbered pages. But see if you can beat me; it probably won’t be easy!
For those not familiar with the actual history not mentioned in this fiction book: There were three attempts to assassinate Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania’s most infamous autocrat, during the December 1989 Revolution. However, he and his wife, Elana, were ultimately captured and executed by firing squad on 25 December 1989, following a summary trial by an Extraordinary Military Tribunal. The charges: Genocide – over 60,000 victims; Subversion of state power by organizing armed actions against the people and state power; Destruction of public property by destroying and damaging buildings, explosions in cities, etc.; Undermining the national economy; Attempting to flee the country using over $1 billion deposited in foreign banks.
All in all, however, as an exploration of character involving a young student and a mature detective engaged in solving a serial-murder mystery, this is a wonderful book and highly recommended!
For those interested in more examples of how character counts, check out George Washington's Liberty Key: Mount Vernon's Bastille Key – the Mystery and Magic of Its Body, Mind, and Soul, a best-seller at Mount Vernon.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
An appealing, puzzling story told from multiple points of view of life in totalitarian Romania in the months before revolution toppled the Ceasescu regime and led to the speedy trial and execution of Nicolae & Elena Ceausescu in December 1989. (Not knowing Romanian history, I had to do a little research here.)
The story begins in March 1989, and eight-year-old Lia keeps getting in trouble in her innocence as a small child. Her parents are beside themselves monitoring Lia's actions and words, hoping she won't land her whole family in trouble with the government. A bright and observant child, Lia notices that the world under the current oppressive regime has become colorless, and she, a budding artist, sets out to ask the powers-that-be to restore color to the world.
With parents who seem to continually be appalled at her musings and childish outspokenness, and who seek to keep their exuberant child on a short leash for her own and the family's safety, Lia manages to befriend an older man in the next apartment block, Comrade Mantea. The man appreciates Lia's independent spirit and encourages her creativity.
Another story line involves a police officer, Constantin, a devoted father and family man and serious about his job solving crimes and promoting public safety. When confronted with evidence that there may be a serial killer loose and committing crimes around the country, he wants to warn citizens of the danger and to keep watch for their safety, but the notion of a serial killer is counter to the party line that Romania is a closed, controlled society. He is told by his higher-ups that the only way to caution the citizenry is to present the false notion that there is a marauding bear on the loose, slashing and killing people.
The book weaves these story lines in alternating sections and yes, they do come together rather suspensefully at the end. I have reread the ending a couple times and have to admit I don't fully understand how exactly events unfolded. I have to think that the ending is ambiguous by design. After all, Lia is a child and doesn't understand what she is asked to do, nor the motivations of the adults around her, and certainly not the unrest that is beginning to show its face by August, when the story concludes. And in this closed society, even the adults are unsure of what has happened.
Well woven through the narrative is the reality of life under the repressive regime, fraught with misinformation (the "bear" is but the tip of the iceberg), suspicion of neighbor against neighbor, the inevitability of government informers ready to report the smallest infractions of tight societal norms, and ever-present shortages of food and supplies in this truly dreary, colorless existence. Though in many ways still a naive child, Lia shows herself to be resourceful in navigating the strictures of her society.
The book's title, "Astronaut!" relates to an incident where Lia locks horns with her teacher over a drawing of a space man she made, labeling it as an "astronaut." The teacher essentially defaces Lia's drawing to "correct" it, obliterating a bright yellow sun to write the Soviet-approved name, "cosmonaut." Of course, Lia can't let this stand.
If you are looking for a definitive historical novel that outlines the crumbling of a Soviet bloc country, this is not the book. Instead, it is a heartfelt depiction of people trying to navigate & survive a totalitarian regime, the toll it takes on their spirits and their families, and the sometimes clever, imaginative, and quietly subversive strategies they employ to stay sane. I agree with other reviewers--this is not a comedy, but there are some fleetingly comic moments of absurdity--and I would say that this book is full of heart & determination.
The story begins in March 1989, and eight-year-old Lia keeps getting in trouble in her innocence as a small child. Her parents are beside themselves monitoring Lia's actions and words, hoping she won't land her whole family in trouble with the government. A bright and observant child, Lia notices that the world under the current oppressive regime has become colorless, and she, a budding artist, sets out to ask the powers-that-be to restore color to the world.
With parents who seem to continually be appalled at her musings and childish outspokenness, and who seek to keep their exuberant child on a short leash for her own and the family's safety, Lia manages to befriend an older man in the next apartment block, Comrade Mantea. The man appreciates Lia's independent spirit and encourages her creativity.
Another story line involves a police officer, Constantin, a devoted father and family man and serious about his job solving crimes and promoting public safety. When confronted with evidence that there may be a serial killer loose and committing crimes around the country, he wants to warn citizens of the danger and to keep watch for their safety, but the notion of a serial killer is counter to the party line that Romania is a closed, controlled society. He is told by his higher-ups that the only way to caution the citizenry is to present the false notion that there is a marauding bear on the loose, slashing and killing people.
The book weaves these story lines in alternating sections and yes, they do come together rather suspensefully at the end. I have reread the ending a couple times and have to admit I don't fully understand how exactly events unfolded. I have to think that the ending is ambiguous by design. After all, Lia is a child and doesn't understand what she is asked to do, nor the motivations of the adults around her, and certainly not the unrest that is beginning to show its face by August, when the story concludes. And in this closed society, even the adults are unsure of what has happened.
Well woven through the narrative is the reality of life under the repressive regime, fraught with misinformation (the "bear" is but the tip of the iceberg), suspicion of neighbor against neighbor, the inevitability of government informers ready to report the smallest infractions of tight societal norms, and ever-present shortages of food and supplies in this truly dreary, colorless existence. Though in many ways still a naive child, Lia shows herself to be resourceful in navigating the strictures of her society.
The book's title, "Astronaut!" relates to an incident where Lia locks horns with her teacher over a drawing of a space man she made, labeling it as an "astronaut." The teacher essentially defaces Lia's drawing to "correct" it, obliterating a bright yellow sun to write the Soviet-approved name, "cosmonaut." Of course, Lia can't let this stand.
If you are looking for a definitive historical novel that outlines the crumbling of a Soviet bloc country, this is not the book. Instead, it is a heartfelt depiction of people trying to navigate & survive a totalitarian regime, the toll it takes on their spirits and their families, and the sometimes clever, imaginative, and quietly subversive strategies they employ to stay sane. I agree with other reviewers--this is not a comedy, but there are some fleetingly comic moments of absurdity--and I would say that this book is full of heart & determination.
May 16, 2026
Lia can't do right for doing wrong – when all she wants is a lovely sunny vase for her mother's birthday present, she nabs a bit of the special currency from its hiding place – and you can't flash Deutschmarks around in Ceausescu's Romania, now. The shopkeeper, it's implied, sexually blackmails the mother, until he's found dead. Confusingly, at least at first, for us, someone else is mauled to death, too – and they're not alone. In alternating chapters we then see Lia's tenuous grip on what she ought to do living in the minefield of secret police, informers, etc, and a disgruntled police detective and fairytale author slowly getting to some sanctioned truth about the multiple murders.
This book proves a mish-mash of two failed stories. The police work is a failure – for one thing, the verdict from above is that it must have been a bear doing all the random killings, indoors or out. If you read Yulia Yakovleva you'll know what happens when the bigwigs demand the police find their solution to the crime, even if it certainly isn't the factual one. It's a procedural where only one or two players are following procedure, the rest are closing doors, putting out lies, and so on.
But the other side of this – the childhood as it might have been in Romania in the late 1980s – is also a failure. Lia definitely finds an etc to latch on to, and while it is only implied the first victim was going to letch over her mother, from this point on there is a build to something that again is never stated but so bleedingly obvious it gets boring. Lia's demand for more colour, while admittedly showing the naivety of the character, isn't exactly a great way to tell us what we need to know about the country under this leadership.
Oh and the whole thing is seriously mis-sold as being a comedic piece.
So I can't recommend this – I wanted to find something fine, something that perhaps merged the Kurkov flippancy about Soviet life with the Kurkov thrillers he's turned to more recently. I wanted a lot more flavour of Romania – I felt as much character of Sighisoara as if sent a postcard from there, disappointingly. And while the framework of the story and its structure is a lot better than first feared, it remains as I say a blend of two failures. And that ain't never going to make a success. A highly generous two stars.
This book proves a mish-mash of two failed stories. The police work is a failure – for one thing, the verdict from above is that it must have been a bear doing all the random killings, indoors or out. If you read Yulia Yakovleva you'll know what happens when the bigwigs demand the police find their solution to the crime, even if it certainly isn't the factual one. It's a procedural where only one or two players are following procedure, the rest are closing doors, putting out lies, and so on.
But the other side of this – the childhood as it might have been in Romania in the late 1980s – is also a failure. Lia definitely finds an etc to latch on to, and while it is only implied the first victim was going to letch over her mother, from this point on there is a build to something that again is never stated but so bleedingly obvious it gets boring. Lia's demand for more colour, while admittedly showing the naivety of the character, isn't exactly a great way to tell us what we need to know about the country under this leadership.
Oh and the whole thing is seriously mis-sold as being a comedic piece.
So I can't recommend this – I wanted to find something fine, something that perhaps merged the Kurkov flippancy about Soviet life with the Kurkov thrillers he's turned to more recently. I wanted a lot more flavour of Romania – I felt as much character of Sighisoara as if sent a postcard from there, disappointingly. And while the framework of the story and its structure is a lot better than first feared, it remains as I say a blend of two failures. And that ain't never going to make a success. A highly generous two stars.
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