The Unbeliever
The Unbeliever is fictionalised history rather than historical fiction. It is based closely on the real-life story of a Bulgarian diplomat who was executed for treason in 1964. He made a full confession in return for a promise to spare his wife, a promise which it seems was kept.
The book charts the diplomat’s growing disillusionment with the Communist regime and his progress to becoming a paid CIA agent. The narrative is presented in alternating chapters, shifting between the prisoner’s interrogation sessions and the reminiscences of his widow. The former is based on official records, the latter spring entirely from the author’s imagination.
The theme, as in many Cold War novels, is ‘what is treason?’ In this case the ‘traitor’ is the Good Guy, i.e., his cause won in the end. ‘If Treason prosper none dare call it Treason.’
