Dominion is a spy novel, a love story, and also I hope gives some sense of the difficulties faced by dissidents under any totalitarian regime: the threat of imprisonment, torture and death; the threat to one's family, the terror of being alone in a hostile world.

If I knocked and waited at every door, who knows what I might miss?

Truly, as the ancients taught us, there is nothing under the moon, however fine, that is not subject to corruption.

It seems a universal rule in this world that people will always look for victims and scapegoats, does it not? Especially at times of difficulty and tension.

We of alien looks or words must stick together.

But if we never acted except when we were certain our motives were pure, we would never act at all.

The echoes of childhood torments have great power, even when not brought to mind in such an inexplicable and horrifying way.