Drumul egal al fiecărei zile (The Equal Way of Every Day), a story alluding to intellectual survival in a provincial environment during the aggressive Stalinist 1950s, won her critical acclaim and the Romanian Academy prize.

During the same year, in August, she traveled to the People's Republic of Poland, where she witnessed the mood encouraged by the visit of Pope John Paul II (according to her recollections, it was "a magic sentiment of human dignity").

[2] With Dimineață pierdută (Wasted Morning), a complex novel centered on an apparently banal conversation between two women, discreetly but fastidiously reconstructing the tragic end of the interwar generation, Adameșteanu was awarded the Writers' Union prize and was confirmed as one of the most important Romanian authors of the 1980s.

[5] Her other literary works include Vară-primăvară (a collection of short stories published in 1989), Obsesia politicii (interviews with post-1989 political figures, 1995), Cele două Românii (essays, 2000), and the 2003 novel Întâlnirea.

[7] In this respect, critics have rated her literature among the major accomplishments of her generation (alongside the similarly themed novels and short stories of Norman Manea, Bedros Horasangian, Alexandru Papilian, and Mircea Nedelciu).