A book which exhudes the chilly atmosphere of Communist Romania so well, and as one who visited the country during that era, it was all very familiar. This story portrays the frailties of both capitalism and communism.
Extract
He nodded, found out, back at school again. There was no band during school lunches, but the feeling he had from Romania was predominantly one of being back at school. At a place where there were several levels of authority that could arbitrarily restrict and punish you, from the headmaster downwards: the masters, the prefects, the fifth and fourth form bullies whom the official authorities never seemed to restrain.
