Your novel, THE BUCHAREST DOSSIER, takes place in 1989 in Romania. Why choose that time and place for your story? What’s your inspiration?
By December of 1989, the satellite countries of the Soviet Union had transitioned to democracy through their own versions of a “velvet,” peaceful revolution. All except one: Romania. Its leader, Nicolae Ceausescu, was a Stalinist tyrant who held the country in a tight grip through the use of his dreaded secret police, the Securitate. Romania would become the only former Soviet satellite to have a violent revolution, resulting in over 1,200 deaths, though exact numbers are still not available. And to this day, the people of Romania are still asking whether it was truly a popular revolution, or a coup directed by outside forces.
Having been born in Romania, that period of history intrigued me. I have visited Romania many times, both during the communist years and afterward. I believe I can provide an accurate depiction of life under a totalitarian regime both from personal experience and through the eyes of relatives and friends who still live there. I think that in today’s world, it would be enlightening for the public to see what a totalitarian regime looks like and the forces of fear and propaganda that permeated that experience.
How much, if any, research went into this book?
A great deal of research was needed to accurately depict the historical events of the revolution. I read non-fiction books on the subject, as well as articles and scholarly studies in both English and Romanian dealing with Ceausescu’s corrupt regime and the day-to-day events of the revolution. In addition, I have personal experiences from my many visits back to Romania during Ceausescu’s regime, along with first-hand accounts from relatives and friends of life under those horrific conditions and the events that led to the revolution. I have tried to be as historically accurate as possible.
What can you tell readers about your protagonist Bill Hefflin? What’s he all about? What motivates him?
Bill Hefflin was born in Romania and came to the US with his parents at the age of nine. While attending Harvard, he was recruited by the CIA as an analyst. He is a unique analyst, however, in that he runs his own mole inside the KGB code-named Boris. In December of 1989, he receives a message from Boris to go to Bucharest to “create” history. He is thrust into the life of a field agent, having to deal not only with the bloody events of the uprisings, but with his ulterior motive for going back to Bucharest: finding his childhood love whom he left behind twenty years before.
Hefflin is an unanchored spirit. He feels neither Romanian, nor Greek (his parents are both Greek) nor truly American. He changes his name before entering college so as not to be labeled an immigrant. He wants to be a true American, so he joins the CIA, which promises him a home. He has elevated his childhood love, Pusha, to the level of a mythical figure. Having been torn from her and his childhood, he has idealized both, yet he is always fearful of the nostalgia for a paradise lost that tear at his soul.
This is a book about spies, but the book description mention’s the main character’s “childhood love”. Nowadays when most people think of spies, they most likely think of big budget action films. How much of this story is about destruction and things exploding versus a personal and emotional journey for the hero? Is it about half and half?
The book is structured as a love story inside a spy thriller inside a historical novel. The background is composed of the historical events of the revolution. The spy thriller is the protagonist’s mission in Bucharest. But at the pinnacle lies the love theme, which is the principal story of the novel and the hero’s quest. Although I wanted to depict some of the misery of life under communism, and a few violent events of the revolution, this is mainly a novel about love that endures even under the most challenging circumstances. This novel has relatively little violent action by the hero, while stressing the emotional journey of his quest for his love and his identity.
Can you say whether or not there’s any definite resolution at the end of THE BUCHAREST DOSSIER, or are things left more open ended? Will this be the first book in a series?
Each level of the novel has at least one mystery inside it. The historical part has the question of whether the revolution was instigated by outside forces, which has not been historically resolved at this point. I provide a plausible explanation. The spy story has several mysteries: what is the protagonist’s real mission in Bucharest, who is Boris, and why does Boris seem to know so much about Hefflin’s life? All those questions are answered by the end. The love story has the mystery of his childhood love, her identity, and her ultimate fate. Those questions are also resolved and form the core of the novel. There is one question in the book that is not resolved, which is left for the sequel.
A few authors I’ve interviewed in the past have told me that the kind of book they enjoy writing is not the same kind of book they enjoy reading. What do you like to read? Favorite books? Authors?
My favorite author is Lawrence Durrell, especially The Alexandria Quartet. Though it has mysteries in it, it is a Proustian love novel written in beautiful, poetic language. I read widely in literary fiction. In the spy genre, my favorite authors are John Le Carré, Graham Greene, Len Deighton, Alan Furst and Joseph Kanon.
What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on the sequel to The Bucharest Dossier.
THE BUCHAREST DOSSIER by William Maz
At the start of the 1989 uprising in Romania, CIA analyst Bill Hefflin—a disillusioned Romanian expat—arrives in Bucharest at the insistence of his KGB asset, code-named Boris. As Hefflin becomes embroiled in an uprising that turns into a brutal revolution, nothing is as it seems, including the search for his childhood love, which has taken on mythical proportions.
With the bloody events unfolding at blinding speed, Hefflin realizes the revolution is manipulated by outside forces, including his own CIA and Boris—the puppeteer who seems to be pulling all the strings of Hefflin’s life.
Suspense Spy | Thriller Political | Thriller Spy [Oceanview Publishing, On Sale: March 15, 2022, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781608094769 / eISBN: 9781608094776]
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About William Maz
Born in Bucharest, Romania, William Maz emigrated to the U.S. as a child. He is a graduate of Harvard University and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Following a residency in anesthesiology at Yale, he practiced medicine, and during that time, he developed a passion for writing fiction. He studied writing at Harvard, the New School, and The Writer’s Studio in New York City, and is now writing full time. William is married to a surgeon, and he divides his time between Pennsylvania and New York City.
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