Romanian-Australian writer Anamaria Beligan moves between political satire, surrealism and psychological fiction, assembling nine short stories about systems that insist upon their own perfection.

Often darkly comic and pretty unsettling, the collection explores the relationship between private experience and public ideology, particularly the ways political authority enters language, imagination and the smallest negotiations of everyday life.

The title story unfolds against the backdrop of Ceaușescu's Romania, where childhood friendships, underground adventures and the intoxicating prospect of social advancement become entangled with the grotesque machinery of Communist bureaucracy. Elsewhere, Beligan's characters inhabit worlds in which the familiar becomes increasingly unstable, as historical memory, personal reinvention and elaborate fantasies of control collide. Her prose moves between sharp observation and extravagant invention, exposing the ridiculousness of authoritarian certainty without losing sight of its more intimate consequences.

Originally published in Romanian as Încă un minut cu Monica Vitti in 1998, the collection draws together stories previously appearing in Australian, Romanian and American literary journals and anthologies. An inventive, irreverent work of short fiction, particularly rewarding for readers interested in Eastern European literature and political absurdism.

Softcover, English-language edition. Very good internal condition, with visible creasing and surface wear to the front cover, particularly the lower right corner. Shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Best Short Story Collection Award.