Gold in the Furnace

Set against the fading glow of late-Cold War Yugoslavia, this novel follows George Childs, an American diplomat newly stationed in Zagreb. What begins as cultural curiosity soon becomes something far more intimate-and far more dangerous-when George meets Nada, a sharp-tongued Serbian intellectual whose personal history is inseparable from the region's unresolved past. As Yugoslavia's ethnic, religious, and political fault lines surface, George's belief in American objectivity is steadily eroded. Nada understands what he cannot yet see: in this land, neutrality is an illusion, and everyone is eventually forced to choose a side.Rich in detail, humor, and lived experience, the novel blends romance with political insight, weaving together love, diplomacy, and the weight of centuries-old divisions. From the streets of Zagreb to the hills of Slovenia and the Adriatic coast, the story captures a society on the brink-and two people struggling to decide whether intimacy can survive ideology.