Novel
Žalčio žvilgsnis
Not translated into English
Saulius Tomas Kondrotas · 1981
Synopsis
In a village of late nineteenth-century Lithuania, under Russian rule, Kristupas Meižis, a carpenter's son destined for the same trade, tells of his childhood, his beginnings and his marriage. Around him prowl Lizanas, a menacing woodcutter, and the young Count Emilis, nicknamed Pipiras, who believes everything is allowed to him and covets Pime, the prettiest girl in the village and Kristupas's fiancée. The non-linear narrative mixes facts with grotesque ethnographic scenes, myths and visions.
Context
Published by Vaga in 1981, the novel is drawn from a true story, but the author concentrates on the inner life of his hero, on his unconscious steeped in mythology and on his fate; he presented it as a study of love, its forms and its stages. The book draws on the Baltic world view and Baltic religious motifs. The filmmaker G. Lukšas brought it to the screen in 1990 from a screenplay by Kondrotas. Translated into German in 1990, it appeared in French as early as 1991, translated by Ugné Karvelis for Albin Michel, then in Spanish, Catalan, Hungarian and other languages, but not in English.
Who it is for
For a Lithuanian novel in which village realism tips over into myth, to be read as a study of the forms of love.
Prizes and reception
Translated into some ten languages after the author left for the West, it ranks eighth in the Lithuanian list of 2018.