Publisher's Synopsis
To eighteen-year-old Aura Imbarus, Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had turned Romania into a land of zombies as surely as if Count Dracula had sucked its lifeblood. Yet Aura dares to be herself: an optimistic overachiever, heiress to lands confiscated by the regime, and a rebel among the gray-clad, fearful masses. Christmas shopping in 1989, Aura and her parents draw sniper fire as Romania descends into the violence of a revolution that topples one of the most draconian regimes in the Soviet bloc. They hide heirloom jewels and build barricades against five harrowing days of chaos. With a bit of Hungarian mysticism in her blood, astonishingly accurate visions lead Aura into danger as well as a closer connection with the love of her life, handsome and sophisticated Michael Chiorean. Eventually, Aura and Michael marry and flee a homeland still in chaos. With only two pieces of luggage and a powerful dream, they settle in Los Angeles where freedom and sudden wealth challenge their love as powerfully as Communist tyranny. Aura loses her psychic vision. Heirloom jewels are stolen, a fortune is lost, followed by divorce and a death. Reeling at first, Aura and Michael find their way back to each other, this time with joy and the true freedom they discover within. They've paid a high price for their materialistic dreams, but gain a love that is far richer in this deftly written memoir of the heart, identity, and the human spirit.
