L.V. Marinov

Author of The Masks We Wear

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About the Novel

When the body of a deceased politician disappears before the funeral, the only clues are long-buried secrets.

Vlado Neshev is a Wall Street banker haunted by his émigré past and the shadow of his father, a former fixer for Bulgaria’s Communist-era State Security. When news arrives that his father has died, Vlado returns to Sofia for the funeral, only to find a stranger’s body lying in the coffin. As he tries to solve the mystery, he uncovers a trail of secrets involving his father’s role in a botched State Security operation to smuggle a priceless Thracian relic decades earlier. Teaming up with Anna, a spirited pathologist-in-training, Vlado faces betrayal, violence and corruption as he uncovers his father’s double life and the brutal legacy of Communism. A ruthless but shadowy enemy is pursuing him. Can Vlado stay ahead of this adversary and find his father’s body? And when he falls for Anna, will he confront his own feelings, as well as his past?

In this gripping story of power, deception, and redemption, the masks we wear may prove the most dangerous weapon of all.

A thriller that cuts deep as it traces the uncertainty and risks of one man’s personal transformation.

 

— Philip Graham, writer, editor, and founder of Ninth Letter magazine

Thought-provoking and poignant, The Masks We Wear is rich with intrigue and suspense, serving as a timely reminder of the dangers of totalitarianism in a world on the brink of a new Cold War.

 

— Daniela Petrova, author OF HER DAUGHTER'S MOTHER

L.V. Marinov’s The Masks We Wear combines elegant prose, a briskly paced mystery, and a slow-burn character study to interrogate the lasting consequences of authoritarianism. When the novel’s flawed but resolute protagonist Vlado Neshev—at once trapped between the brutal deprivation of his communist upbringing and the lawless decadence of his investment banking career—is forced to confront his late father’s troubled past, he undergoes a satisfying transformation which proves that, while our familial ghosts may forever haunt us, they need not define us.

 

— Amran Gowani, author of LEVERAGE

About the Author

L.V. Marinov is an American-Bulgarian novelist and academic anesthesiologist. He received his medical degree from the University of Oslo and trained in anesthesiology at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. He is the author of over 50 peer-reviewed medical articles and co-editor of Cardiac Anesthesia: The Basics of Evaluation and Management. When not taking care of patients and teaching younger doctors, he explores literary themes that capture the zeitgeist but are universal to the human condition. He lives in Philadelphia. The Masks We Wear is his debut novel.

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