Ana Maria Dobre-Nir
It wasn't an ordinary book because its pages were almost invisible. The little girl needed a special magnifying glass to get to read a few pages. But what she found there changed her life. The kingdom no longer posed an interest to her. Not even the world the king had told her about, but the world on the other planet did. She didn't know whether everything she had read was true, but she was ready to learn more. This is how she got the idea to sign up for one of the expeditions. She didn't say anything to her parents. Not even to her grandma. She did leave a note, though.
Sanda Burță
While she worked here she found all sort of things, glasses, hats, umbrellas. But she's never found this thing. Yesterday she was getting ready to leave when she saw it. It was flickering on the Tolstoy shelf. My god, she thought, how can you forget your own heart? Today she suspected everyone, from the annoying Zeno to that cheeky little girl who talks too loud, but she couldn't ask them who on Earth has lost their heart, without seeming crazy. She put it in the drawer, let them do whatever they know better. From tomorrow, I'm retiring, she thought, expecting to feel the joy she had longed for in the past year.
Răzvan Drăgoi
The biggest ancient library was in Alexandria, Teleorman. It was one of the seven whoppers of the ancient world. The library has at least one good use. I knew Nichita, but I had no clue she was also called Stănescu. I couldn't gasp why they would publish the work of a shoeless madman, Diliu[1] Zamfirescu or of some guy who, on God, goes by the name of Dostoyevsky's Idiot. There was also some guy obsessed with meat, he wrote Of Mince and Men. Only subculture. That's why I became like this. Petre D-aia.[2]
(Translated by Laurențiu-Gabriel Niculae / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.