Three Novels of the Kingdom and Its Shadows
The Boris Conspiracy
1930–2000
King Boris III marries Princess Giovanna of Savoy in a double ceremony — Catholic in Assisi, Orthodox in Sofia. Their bond deepens even as his wartime diplomacy — keeping Bulgaria alive between Hitler and Stalin — leaves Ioanna profoundly alone. Into that solitude steps Stanislav Balan, the king’s personal secretary. Their affair becomes the decade’s most dangerous secret. When Boris returns from the Wolf’s Lair in August 1943, it becomes something far darker.
“History will call you murderer. And history will be right.”
Nada Means Nothing
1938–1995
Nada Means Nothing
Nada draws water from the village well and a decorated soldier drinks from her bucket — the oldest courtship ritual in Bulgaria. King Boris himself dances at their wedding. Then the coup of September 9, 1944, and a night in the forest that destroys everything. Decades later a Bulgarian mathematician finds Kostov, N. in an Edmonton phone book, and finally hears the story she has carried for fifty years.
“My name once meant Hope. Now it means Nothing. Nothing doesn’t hurt.”
Crown of Clowns
1911–2001
A blizzard traps Tsar Ferdinand I in the mountain village of Pravetz. A washerwoman named Marutsa is summoned to his chambers; days later she initiates Crown Prince Boris into manhood at Vrana Palace. Nine months later a boy is born with a notably prominent nose. His name is Todor. His mother carries the secret through two Balkan Wars, the Great War, and a Communist death sentence — until 1931, when the truth becomes his only pardon.
“The Saxe-Coburg blood that ruled through the monarchy now ruled through the Communist Party.”
