A rediscovered classic. This is a poignant coming-of-age novel by the distinguished Jewish-Romanian author Mihail Sebastian about life in a small town and Bucharest before the war, translated into English for the first time and published in the UK.
Bored by religious instruction and painting lessons, a group of friends at a convent school spend their days dreaming of romance, fashion and the latest gramophone records. One by one, they give up their visions of adventure and submit to provincial life, marrying for money and status, like their mothers before them. Plain, jaundiced Lucretia, becomes the envy of her friends when Paul, a glamorous dandy proposes, but she hides a shocking secret that will destroy their marriage and expose them to scandal. Only Adriana Dunea, the most beautiful and talented girl in the school seems destined for happiness with her childhood sweetheart, Gelu. But everything changes when, on a trip to Bucharest, she meets Cello Viorin, a famous composer.