Robert Kaplan first visited Romania in the 1970s, when he was a young journalist and the country was a bleak Communist backwater. It was one of the darkest corners of Europe, but few Westerners were paying attention. What ensued was a lifelong obsession with a critical, often overlooked country --- a country that, today, is key to understanding the current threat that Russia poses to Europe. Through the lens of one country, Kaplan examines larger questions of geography, imperialism, the role of fate in international relations, the Cold War, the Holocaust and more.

Robert Kaplan first visited Romania in the 1970s, when he was a young journalist and the country was a bleak Communist backwater. It was one of the darkest corners of Europe, but few Westerners were paying attention. What ensued was a lifelong obsession with a critical, often overlooked country --- a country that, today, is key to understanding the current threat that Russia poses to Europe. Through the lens of one country, Kaplan examines larger questions of geography, imperialism, the role of fate in international relations, the Cold War, the Holocaust and more.

From the New York Times bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan, named one of the world’s Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine, comes a riveting journey through one of Europe’s frontier countries --- and a potent examination of the forces that will determine Europe’s fate in the postmodern age.

Robert Kaplan first visited Romania in the 1970s, when he was a young journalist and the country was a bleak Communist backwater. It was one of the darkest corners of Europe, but few Westerners were paying attention. What ensued was a lifelong obsession with a critical, often overlooked country --- a country that, today, is key to understanding the current threat that Russia poses to Europe. IN EUROPE'S SHADOW is a vivid blend of memoir, travelogue, journalism and history, a masterly work 30 years in the making --- the story of a journalist coming of age, and a country struggling to do the same. Through the lens of one country, Kaplan examines larger questions of geography, imperialism, the role of fate in international relations, the Cold War, the Holocaust and more.

Here Kaplan illuminates the fusion of the Latin West and the Greek East that created Romania, the country that gave rise to Ion Antonescu, Hitler’s chief foreign accomplice during World War II, and the country that was home to the most brutal strain of Communism under Nicolae Ceaușescu. Romania past and present are rendered in cinematic prose: the ashen faces of citizens waiting in bread lines in Cold War–era Bucharest; the Bărăgan Steppe, laid bare by centuries of foreign invasion; the grim labor camps of the Black Sea Canal; the majestic Gothic church spires of Transylvania and Maramureş. Kaplan finds himself in dialogue with the great thinkers of the past, and with the Romanians of today, the philosophers, priests and politicians --- those who struggle to keep the flame of humanism alive in the era of a resurgent Russia.

Upon his return to Romania in 2013 and 2014, Kaplan found the country transformed yet again --- now a traveler’s destination shaped by Western tastes, yet still emerging from the long shadows of Hitler and Stalin. IN EUROPE'S SHADOW is the story of an ideological and geographic frontier --- and the book you must read in order to truly understand the crisis with Russia, and within Europe itself.

Audiobook available, narrated by J. Paul Boehmer

Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere of the joint BCA-FBI violent crime task force have handled shocking cases before, but this one is different. Stevens’ daughter, Andrea, is distraught over a classmate’s suicide, but what the two investigators find is even more disturbing --- an online suicide club of unhappy teenagers, presided over by an anonymous presence who seems to be spurring them on. It soon becomes apparent that the classmate wasn’t the first victim --- and won’t be the last, either, unless they can hunt down this psychopath once and for all.

Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere of the joint BCA-FBI violent crime task force have handled shocking cases before, but this one is different. Stevens’ daughter, Andrea, is distraught over a classmate’s suicide, but what the two investigators find is even more disturbing --- an online suicide club of unhappy teenagers, presided over by an anonymous presence who seems to be spurring them on. It soon becomes apparent that the classmate wasn’t the first victim --- and won’t be the last, either, unless they can hunt down this psychopath once and for all.

A heart-pounding new Stevens and Windermere thriller from the award-winning author of THE STOLEN ONES and THE PROFESSIONALS
 
Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere of the joint BCA-FBI violent crime task force have handled shocking cases before, but this one is different. Stevens’s daughter, Andrea, is distraught over a classmate’s suicide, but what the two investigators find is even more disturbing --- an online suicide club of unhappy teenagers, presided over by an anonymous presence who seems to be spurring them on. Soon, it becomes apparent that the classmate wasn’t the first victim --- and won’t be the last, either, unless they can hunt down this psychopath once and for all.

Audiobook available, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini