Viaţa ca o pradă (Life as prey) is a 1977 partly-autobiographical novel by Romanian author Marin Preda.

Marin's father refuses to pay his school fees there, but he manages to get admitted.

Marin takes a job with a newspaper and then with a printer, eventually earning enough to rent a better room.

With a group of friends he wants to publish his first book of short stories and then take several months' vacation in Sinaia, where he hopes to write a novel.

He has no inspiration, but after becoming editor of Viața Românească, he takes a long vacation and returns to Sinaia, where he writes Moromeții.