I would like to share a press release for a new Horror book and if you know me you know I don’t read Horror stories, visit Haunted Houses or watch Scary Movies. So you might be asking why I would request a Horror book and its because Charlie and David like these types of things and with Halloween right around the corner I thought the book might bring them closer together and get Charlie a new book to read in his Homeschool Reading Class.
“A tale from last Century and a warning for this one, Red Hands is a novel of rare power that teaches us much about Romania and even more about ourselves.”
— D.D. Johnston, author of The Secret Baby Room
KENNEBUNK BEACH, Maine, Oct. 18, 2023 — Iordana Ceausescu and her young son were being hunted when they wound up in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, on the doorstep of writer and publisher Colin W. Sargent. Fleeing a bloodthirsty Romanian populace hell-bent on executing anyone with the Ceausescu name, Iordana’s life was in Sargent’s hands, and soon, her remarkable life story would be as well.
“Her story is a cautionary tale, and while it focuses on her personal experience of getting involved with a dictator’s family, it represents a whole country,” Sargent recounted during an interview. “The more I listened to Iordana, the more I realized it was a horror story. If we’re not careful, we can all get seduced and then destroyed by the nightmare.”
Sargent would go on to protect Iordana’s and her son’s secret for several years, all the while learning their remarkable history. He conducted hundreds of hours of unique interviews, read newspaper accounts from the time, watched Iordana’s favorite movies and listened to her favorite music — all to construct the framework for his powerful book based on Iordana’s life, Red Hands.
Told in Iordana’s own voice, Red Hands is a true-life tale that spins readers into the pleasures, excesses and horrors of late 20th-century Europe, and follows her as she falls in love with, marries and becomes estranged from, the Romanian dictator’s son.
“As much as Iordana must tell her tale, she finds the telling excruciating,” Sargent recalled. “She feels shame as she recounts the speedboats, designer wardrobes, exclusive access to Western culture via television and a private home theatre, and the mansions and gardens with staff enough to have a caretaker for her pet lamb.”
But all of that material excess comes at a cost. Nicolae Ceausescu mismanages Romania’s money, plunging the country into crippling debt and chaos. Babies are torn from their parents and relocated to education/work farms. Countless citizens do not survive. Those who do are in a rage and plot to storm the city.
Meanwhile, Iordana’s marriage crumbles, and when the Ceausescu dictatorship is overthrown by starving citizens with nothing to lose, Iordana must find a way — against all odds — to keep herself and her young son alive.
Kirkus Reviews calls Red Hands, “Poignant, frightening, packed with historical nuggets — a cautionary tale for contemporary times.”
Sargent agrees and hopes that’s the takeaway for readers. “We’re learning in so many ways that there is no ‘them,’” he added. “This story is about all of us. We’re all susceptible to falling under the spell of a cult of personality.”
About the Author: Colin W. Sargent, Ph.D., is the founding editor and publisher of Portland Magazine as well as a novelist, playwright and poet. He teaches writing at The College of William and Mary. In addition to Red Hands, he is the author of The Boston Castrato and Museum of Human Beings. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he has an MFA from Stonecoast and a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Lancaster University in the UK.
Follow the author on Twitter and Instagram
Publisher: Barbican Press
ISBN-10: 190995439X ISBN-13: 978-1909954397
Available from Amazon.com
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
