Sigitas Parulskis (born 1965) is one of the most important figures in contemporary Lithuanian literature. He made his debut in 1990 as a poet but soon wrote his first plays, one of which, titled P. S. byla O. K., caused a certain amount of scandal with its shock value. He published his first novel Trys sekundės dangaus (Three Seconds of Heaven) in 2002, and after that he wrote less poetry and more prose: short stories, essays and several more novels. His book Tamsa ir partneriai (Darkness and Company) was shortlisted for the Book of the Year Award in 2013, and in 2004 he received the National Prize for Culture and Arts. In his interviews, Parulskis also comes across as one of the most professionally oriented Lithuanian writers, polishing not only his forms of expression but also his style and his narrative structures. His works have been translated into English, Albanian, Greek, Italian, Latvian, Polish, Slovenian, Swedish, German and other languages.

       Tamsa ir partneriai (Darkness and Company). Vilnius: Alma littera, 2012. – 256 p. Italian sample translation available

The story of the Holocaust in Lithuania is dark and divisive. Parulskis took it upon himself to be probably the first Lithuanian writer to address this horrible episode in our common history head-on. The main character is a photographer who is sent by the Nazis to accompany a gang of Lithuanian men who go and shoot local Jews. He is also in love with a Jewish woman. As can be expected, nothing is easy about this book. But it did its job: the response was loud and occasionally profound.

       Kaip aš mečiau (How I Quit). Vilnius: Alma littera, 2024. – 224 p. English sample translation available

The novel’s narrator, Sigitas, decides to quit smoking, and this decision to give up a fiendishly pleasurable addiction (as the narrator says, people don’t want to quit because it’s either a pleasure or a misery) unexpectedly draws him into an inner, all-encompassing journey down memory lane – an incessant conversation with his own mind. The hero delves into his memory like an archaeologist, unearthing the past’s variegated layers and plotlines. This novel is an archaeology of the past, composed of episodes of pain, melancholy, love, and joy as well as reflections on life’s binary oppositions, key to Parulskis’s work: life and death, spirit and body, Eros and Thanatos, youth and old age, the sacred and the profane, memory and oblivion. It is a tapestry of unsentimental, somewhat uncomfortable metaphors that draw attention to the darker side of the world and the soul. This novel transcends genre boundaries; it abounds in poetry, essays, memoirs, the prose of life, and the solitude of the creator – the central motifs of Parulskis’s poetry and prose. By narrating the desire to overcome addiction, Parulskis shows that our greatest addictive relationship is with life itself and the stories that compose it.

Read English sample translation

Selected translations

French: Ténèbres et compagnie. Translated by Marielle Vitureau. Villenave d’Ornon: Agullo Éditions, 2024

Latvian: Tumsa un partneri. Translated by Dace Meiere. Riga: Janis Roze Publishers, 2021

Albanian: Terr Dhe Bashkëpunëtorë. Translated from English by Elisa Ivanaj. Ombra GVG, 2020

Tre sekonda qiell. Translated by Durim Taçe. Skopje: Shkupi, 2008

Polish: Ciemność i Partnerzy. Translated by Izabela Korybut-Daszkiewicz. Wołowiec: Czarne, 2020

Trzy sekundy nieba. Translated by Izabela Korybut-Daszkiewicz. Warszawa: Czytelnik, 2008

English: Darkness and Company. Translated by Karla Gruodis. London: Peter Owen Publishers, 2018

Italian: Tre pièces: P.S. fascicolo O.K.-Solitudine a due-Il traghettatore. Translated by Toma Gudelytė, Stefano Moretti. Pisa: Titivillus, 2015

Tre secondi di cielo. Translated by Birutė Žindžiūtė-Michelini and Guido Michelini. Milano: Isbn Edizioni, 2005

Hungarian: Mormogo fal. Translated by Laczházi Aranka. Budapest: L’Harmattan, 2012

German: Drei Sekunden Himmel. Translated by Claudia Sinnig. Berlin: Claassen, 2009

Slovenian: Tri sekunde neba. Translated by Klemen Pisk. Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2008

Swedish: Tre sekunder himmel. Translated by Jonas Öhman. Lund: Ariel, 2005

Catalan, Croatian, English, French sample translations available

Contact for rights: sigitasparulskis@gmail.com

Contact for samples & other inquiries: kotryna.pranckunaite@lithuanianculture.lt