August’s Skylarking Book Club selection is Astronaut! by debut novelist Oana Aristide, which has garnered a HUGE amount of attention and critical acclaim since its publication. It’s a darkly funny and politically resonant novel set in Romania in 1989.

As usual, we’ll meet in the shop at 6:30 p.m. to discuss!

Daily news flashes of seemingly random murders grip the nation. The suspect? A man-eating bear. Amid the fear of informants, official lies, and daily rationing, two bright lives collide. Constantin, an idealistic police detective prone to scribbling fairy tales in his notebook, is tasked with solving the string of mysterious deaths. Lia, a rebellious, inquisitive schoolgirl pining for more color in her life, is unwittingly drawn into an eccentric elderly neighbor’s secret plot against the regime. While everyone around them is flattened into submission, the two find the spirit to carry out small acts of defiance. Their decisions will have sweeping consequences—for themselves, for their families, and for their country.

Masterfully plotted and psychologically astute, Astronaut! is both a chilling detective novel and a moving coming-of-age tale. It carries a powerful message: the lies we accept today become the truths of tomorrow.

Oana Aristide was born in Transylvania and spent her childhood in communist Romania. She has variously worked as a macroeconomist in London, cabinet advisor in Bucharest, travel journalist, and hotelier in Greece. She now lives in Sweden.