The Fox Was Ever the Hunter

Set in Romania during the last days of the Ceausescu regime, this deeply moving novel is underpinned by images of the ever-present menace and fear, humiliation and hopelessness. The characters emerge tentatively from the rubble of this oppression: Adina, a teacher, and her friend Clara, an engineer working in a factory. When Clara falls in love with an officer working for the secret police who is monitoring the activities of Adina and a group of young musicians, the women’s friendship disintegrates; a fox fur in Adina’s apartment becomes the symbol of the threat they are all under.