“I Must Betray You” is a riveting novel set in Communist Romania in 1989.
It follows an adolescent named Cristian Florescu, who is forced to spy for the secret police to protect his family.
The book provides a stark portrayal of life under the oppressive regime as Cristian grapples with the betrayal of his friends and his struggle with his conscience.
I Must Betray You Quotes With Page Numbers
“Romania’s perpetual sense of surveillance. That’s how it’s been described: the burden of a secret storm.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, SUB RAMA POLEITĂ, Page vii
“He denied them food, electricty, truth and freedom. The citizens of Romania were stoic and resilient, but they suffered a terror of tyranny.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, BENEATH THE GILDED FRAME, Page viii
“We were marked “present” in attendance but were often absent from ourselves.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 1 UNU, Page 2
“Words are weapons. I’ll be able to fight our American and Birtish enemies with words, not only guns.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu, Chapter 1 UNU, Page 3
“They steal our power by making us believe we don’t have any,” said Bunu. “But words and creative phrases—they have power, Cristian. Explore that power in your mind.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Bunu, Chapter 3 TREI, Page 12
“Guilt walks on all fours.
It creeps, encircles, and climbs. It presses its thumbs to your throat.
And it waits.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 4 PATRU, Page 14
“The State controls the amount of food we eat, our electricity, our transportation, the information we receive. But with philosophy, we control our own minds. What if the internal landscape was ours to build and paint?”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Bunu, Chapter 4 PATRU, Page 15
“The State controls the amount of food we eat, our electricity, our transportation, the information we receive.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Bunu, Chapter 4 PATRU, Page 15
“I once opted to go Kentless for a filling. Instead of using Novocain, the dentist put his knee on my chest while he drilled and wrenched. The socket became infected and my face was swollen for a month. My psyche is still swollen. Definitely bribe the dentist”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 8 OPT, Page 30
“Fertility under state control? That’s an abuse of human rights!’ Bunu would wail.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Bunu, Chapter 10 ZECE, Page 36
“Sometimes we don’t recognize life’s perfect moments.
Until it’s too late.”~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 11 UNSPREZECE, Page 41
“Do you hear me?
Reciting jokes
Laughing to hide the tears of truth
That we are denied the present
With empty promises
Of an emptier future.”~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 13 TREISPREZECE, Page 48
“I’ll take it. I’ll keep it locked in the box. Maybe we can trade it for medicine for Bunu.” Cici looked at me, displeased. “A Coke and a dollar. What’s going on, Pui?” she whispered. “Nothing,” I assured her. “Just good luck and bad luck.” Cici nodded slowly, suspicious. “Just remember, Pui, good luck comes at a price. Bad luck is free.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cici, Chapter 16 ŞAISPREZECE, Page 57
“Good luck comes at a price. Bad luck is free.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cici, Chapter 16 ŞAISPREZECE, Page 57
“Mistrust is a form of terror. The regime pits us against one another. We can’t join together in solidarity because we never know whom we can trust or who might be an informer.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Bunu, Chapter 17 ŞAPTESPREZECE, Page 60
“Mistrust is a form of terror. The regime pits us against one another”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Bunu, Chapter 17 ŞAPTESPREZECE, Page 60
“But the person responsible – he wasn’t suffering. We were.
Our hero, Draculescu, sat in his cardboard castle wearing a hollow crown, surrounding himself with clapping men who bowed to him as the Golden Man of the Carpathians while his people suffered, starved, and lived in terror.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 17 ŞAPTESPREZECE, Pages 61, 62
“You think you know someone. And when you realize you’re wrong, the humiliation steals something from you. Your mind becomes a thick forest of dark thoughts and you wonder; ‘what else am I not seeing?”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 18 OPTSPREZECE, Page 63
“This never knowing, it weakens us,” Bunu would say. “It’s a form of control. They know exactly what they’re doing.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Bunu, Chapter 19 NOUĂSPREZECE, Page 69
“Your father’s hungry, Cristian, literally and figuratively. Ration cards in the 1980s? We had more food during World War II,” complained Bunu. “Do you see the lunacy of all this? They’ve got us brainwashed, standing in lines for hours, grateful for rotten beans. But what is the cost of self-worth?”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Bunu, Chapter 20 DOUĂZECI, Page 76
“What is the cost of self-worth?”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Bunu, Chapter 20 DOUĂZECI, Page 76
“You’re wrong. They steal our power by making us believe we don’t have any. They’re controlling us through our own fear.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu, Chapter 22 DOUĂZECI ȘI DOII, Page 83
“You know what, Cristian? Dante was wrong. Hell isn’t hot. It’s cold.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You,Character: Bunu, Chapter 25 DOUĂZECI ȘI CINCI, Page 94
“I didn’t yet know that sometimes in outwitting others, we accidentally outwit ourselves.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 28 DOUĂZECI ȘI OPT, Page 103
“But I was not going to have a breakdown.
I was going to take them all down.”~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 55 TREIZECI ȘI CINCI, Page 127
“Your pain, it inspires me. (…) Yes, inspires me. This regime steals so much from us. Some, like your father, are forced to go silent, dormant. But to feel so deeply, that is the very essence of being human. You give me hope.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Bunu, Chapter 34 TREIZECI ȘI PATRU, Page 126
“Czechoslovakia had endured forty-one years of one-party rule. Nearly half a century under communism. And now that was crumbling.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 40 PATRUZECI, Page 143
“How could we expect others to feel our pain or hear our cries for help when all we could do was whisper?”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 42 PATRUZECI ȘI DOI, Page 146
“Paradise: If communism is Paradise, why do we need barriers, walls, and laws to keep people from escaping?”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 43, PATRUZECI ȘI TREI, Page 147
“If communism is Paradise, why do we need barriers, walls, and laws to keep people from escaping? A great question indeed. In the days ahead, let us not forget these sentiments as we reflect upon communism’s aim to create a man without a memory.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 43 PATRUZECI ȘI TREI, Page 147
“As the saying goes, better to die standing than live kneeling.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 43 PATRUZECI ȘI TREI, Page 148
“He had stolen us from ourselves, for himself. He had broken the soul of Romania and parched a beautiful country into an apocalyptic landscape of the lost.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 44, Page 150
“Sorrow. Anger. An expanse of emptiness that takes form as a separate entity living inside of you. It digs, takes root, and dwells there. And somehow, you know that even if it worms its way out, there will be no relief. If it leaves, there will be nothing left but charred remains, like the inside of a house torched by fire.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 46 PATRUZECI ȘI ȘASE, Page 155
“An unexamined life is not worth living.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Bunu, Chapter 48 PATRUZECI ȘI OPT, Page 165
“An old woman is fast asleep when she hears a knock at the door.
Who is it? she whispers, terrified.
It is death, the voice answers.
Oh, good. I thought it might be the Securitate.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian’s father, Chapter 49 PATRUZECI ȘI NOUĂ, Page 167
“Will YOU REMEMBER ME? A boy with wings of hope.
Strapped to his back.
That never had a chance to open, denied Fforever knowing,
What he could have become. What we all could have become.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 52 CINCIZECI ŞI DOI, Page 180
“Libertate.
Liberty.
It was happening.
It really was happening!
Romanians were joining in hand and heart. And together they were finally calling–
For freedom.”~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 55 CINCIZECI ŞI CINCI, Page 190
“When it’s time, we have to be ready.” “For what?” asked Cici. “To fight,” he replied.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cici and Cristian’s father, Chapter 57 CINCIZECI ŞI ȘAPTE, Page 197
“Ceausescu attempted to regain control. He couldn’t. Random noise echoed from the sound system. He was rattled and confused. And the crowd- we felt it.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 63 ŞAIZECE ŞI TREI, Page 218
“The sensation of speaking up, speaking aloud instead of in whispers, it was euphoric. And you could sense that others felt it too.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 63 ŞAIZECE ŞI TREI, Page 218
“We saw one other.
It was December 21st.
Romanians in Bucharest were united and ready.
For revolution.”~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 63 ŞAIZECE ŞI TREI, Page 218
“We’re already dead! (…) Their system has killed us.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: a university student, Chapter 64 ŞAIZECE ŞI PATRU, Page 219
“Trading Kents for the lives of children. And he said it without hesitation, without the pain and shameful truth it carried—that the guards cared more about nicotine than humans.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, Chapter 68 ŞAIZECE ŞI OPT, Page 237
“Because we’re not shit. Do you hear me? We’re more Romanian than those guards are!”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu, Chapter 69 ŞAIZECE ŞI NOUĂ, Page 244
“It’s all my fault. He was trying to save me.”
“No. We’re all trying to save our country,” said Alex. Every one of us. And if you haven’t noticed, the young people have been the bravest. No regrets in bravery.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu and Alex, Chapter 77 ŞAPTEZECI ŞI ŞAPTE, Page 271
“A revolution eats its heroes.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cici’s note to Christian, Chapter 79 ŞAPTEZECI ŞI NOUĂ, Page 280
“When we don’t know the full story, sometimes we create one of our own. That’s what I had done. And that can be dangerous.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, EPILOG, Page 287
“Was it better to know, or better not to?”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You,Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, EPILOG, Page 290
“Sometimes we think we know. We’re sure we know. But we know nothing. Years pass and eventually, time becomes the unveiler of truth.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, Character: Cristian Florescu as the narrator, EPILOG, Page 291
“Please remember that when adversity is drawn out of the shadows and recognized, we ensure that human beings living under oppression—past and present—know they are not forgotten.
Together we can shine a light in dark corners of the past.
Together, we can give history a voice.”
~Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You, AUTHOR’S NOTE, Page 310