REFINER'S FIRE BY SYLVIA BAMBOLA

REFINER'S FIRE by SYLVIA BAMBOLA takes place in Bucharest during the time of Ceausescu's reign of terror in Romania.
The story starts off in a refugee camp with a mother's anguish.  Magda is sitting in the dust with her five year old twin boys, Alexander and Yuri.  They are in a desperate situation and their friend, "aunt" Sonia, comes up with a solution - an American wants to buy the blond boy, Alexander, and promises him a good life with him and his wife in America.  Sonia is a prostitute who has been selling her body to help herself, Magda and the boys to survive, and she also stands to make quite a bit of money out of the deal herself.  Magda gives in to pressure and hates herself for it.  
Alex Wainwright is the newly appointed American ambassador in Bucharest.  He is  ambitious and feels that after bearing with the situation for two years he may get a plum position in a good place like Paris.  His wife, Loretta, joins him in a few days.  She is  bright, has a good sense of humour and is a good ambassador's wife.  She has a way of keeping him humble, although she is proud of him and supports him in every way. She is untidy and spontaneous, unlike her husband who is meticulous. He is very particular about having a garden where he can relax, and is determined to make his staff clean up the overgrown garden at the residence.
All Alex's staff, except for Yuri his driver, are afraid of him.  He knows the house is bugged and finds out that Yuri is really a colonel in the Romanian army who has been sent to spy on him.  We see the drabness of life in a communist country and the fear that drives the citizens to spy on each other, hoping to find favour with the ruling party by doing so.
Loretta has always been interested in alleviating the hardships of the poor.  When Alex sends her out with Yuri to see something of the town, she finds out that he is a secret Christian who has been seconded from the army to serve under the tyrant Tulasi in the secret police.  She talks him into taking her to the Underground church and her life is never the same again.
Yuri is secretly married to Anna, who's brother Gustav Volkovoy is in a very bad way in prison, being tortured every day for his Christian faith.  Yuri suspects that Alex is his brother, but they are wary of one another, especially as Alex suspects that Yuri is having an affair with his beloved Loretta. 
Alex gets tired of the ambassador's life of cocktail parties and dinners every night, and he is fed up with the lack of concern for people in diplomatic circles.  He is drawn into helping old Doctor and Mrs Tulasi get to America, and then through his helping of Gustav Volkovoy he falls out of favour with the diplomatic service and realizes that he no longer wants to push his way up the ladder.  It is when Gustav, weak and dying, spends twenty four hours on his knees praying for Alex's salvation, that this demonstration of unselfish love draws him to Christ.
When Yuri sees that Alex is willing to lose the position he has been working towards for years, in order to do what is right, he no longer despises him  as being weak and soft.  He sees his strength and courage.  The brothers are reunited at last and are also now true brothers - they are brothers in Christ!
In this novel unconditional love is beautifully portrayed.  We see the love of Christian prisoners for one another, for the unsaved and even for their persecutors.  We see Anna's in  preaching Christ to prostitutes, and even to a dying prostitute who hates her and threatens to give her up to the authorities in order to claim the reward offered on her life.  There is also a strong emphasis on the importance of forgiveness and of letting go of bitterness and hatred.
The story takes place in a very dark time in the history of Romania and Bucharest in particular.  The characters who choose the light come out of the Refiner's fire stronger and full of the love of the Lord, knowing what is really important in life.