Alvydas Šlepikas (born 1966) is one of the most multi-talented contemporary Lithuanian writers, moving between the worlds of literature, theatre, film and television. He is a poet, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, actor and director. He participates actively in the literary life of the country and is a member of both the Lithuanian PEN Centre and the Lithuanian Writers’ Union. His novel Mano vardas – Marytė (In the Shadow of Wolves) – a moving story about the so-called ‘wolf children’ – became the most read novel of 2012 in Lithuania and has gone through six reprints. It is one of the most translated Lithuanian books of recent times and has now been published in Belarusian, Dutch, Estonian, German, Latvian, Polish and Ukrainian. Both the poetry and prose of Alvydas Šlepikas are characterized by a lively visual style and a subtle intertwining of the past and present. The unexpected twists in his characters’ fates and actions are explained through the context of the past, while psychological portraits are shaped by their living environment, both through atmosphere and through historical facts.

       Mano vardas – Marytė (In the Shadow of Wolves). Vilnius: Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishing House, 12 editions, 2012-2018. – 181 p., 207 p. Korean sample translation available

The novel is inspired by the true stories of two women who were part of a group of displaced people during the Second World War known as ‘wolf children’. This was the name given to German children, frequently orphans, who at the end of the war came across the Nemunas River from East Prussia in order to survive and to work in Lithuania. Born in East Prussia (still then part of Germany), they were driven by starvation and the terrors wrought by the Soviet Army to seek refuge in a foreign land – Lithuania. The novel’s main character, Renatė, who calls herself Marytė, symbolizes how life can overcome the challenges of fate. The story of Marytė’s family exposes the tragic predicament of a large number of refugees in East Prussia and Lithuania in the first years after the war. The novel is compelling in its strong narrative and cinematic nature.

       Namas anapus upės: įvairių laikų istorijos (The House Over the River: Stories from Different Times). Vilnius: Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishing House, 2023. – 99 p. English and French sample translations available

It is often said that a good short story should be like a dream, or leave a dream-like impression on us. In this book by Alvydas Šlepikas, there are seven such dreams – not necessarily divinely beautiful or brightly hopeful, with some even teetering on the edge of evoking an oppressive nightmare. These short stories are deeply infused with present-day anxieties (the war in Ukraine, climate change) and the fragility of existence, in the face of which the protagonists seek out connection with one another (a father and son’s journey; a small boy fleeing the front line with his aunts), attempting to avoid the end of the world, which ultimately arrives nonetheless, albeit in an imperceptibly minute way. Almost all the situations depicted unfold on the delicate boundary between life and death, exposing human emotions and instincts, the soul’s dark side. Each story contains an unexpected plot twist that infuses the text with an existential perspective, sometimes allowing glimpses into the abyss of another world. From beauty to horror, from fleeing to settling in and tranquillity—such is the trajectory of this book and its characters as they move through the world, reminding us that alongside life’s cruelties, there is always unexpected magic and a mystery that guards the core of human existence.

Read English sample translation

Awards

2012: In the Shadow of Wolves awarded the Book of the Year Prize (Lithuania)

Selected translations

Italian: Il mio nome è Marytė. Translated by Adriano Cerri. Milan: La nave di Teseo, 2024

Macedonian: Се викам Марите. Translated from English by Katerina Sapalovska. Skopje: Antolog, 2023

Albanian: Në hijen e ujqërve. Translated from English by Hedera Ceni. Tirana: Ombra GVG, 2022

Spanish: Bajo la sombra de los lobos. Translated by Margarita Santos Cuesta. Barcelona: Tusquets Editores, 2021

Czech: Jmenuji se Maryte. Translated by Věra Kociánová. Praha: O deon, 2020

French: À l’ombre des loups. Translated by Marija Bacevičiūtė. Paris: Flammarion, 2020

English: In the Shadow of Wolves. Translated by Romas Kinka. London: Oneworld, 2018

German: Der Regengott und andere Erzählungen (short stories). Translated by Markus Roduner. Halle (Saale): Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 2017

Mein Name ist Marytė. Translated by Markus Roduner. Halle (Saale): Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 2015

Belarusian: Бог дажджу. Translated by Siuzana Paukštela. Minsk: Lohvinau Publishing House, 2016

Dutch: Mijn naam is Marytė. Translated by Anita van der Molen. Groningen: Uitgeverij Nobelman, 2016

Ukrainian: Моє ім’я – Маріте. Translated by Beatričė Beliavciv. Київ: Брайт Стар Паблішінг, 2016

Estonian: Minu nimi on Marytė. Translated by Tiina Kattel. Tartu: Toledo kirjastus, 2015

Polish: Mam na imię Marysia. Translated by Paulina Ciucka. Wroclaw: Kolegium Europy Wschodniej, 2015

Contact for rights: slepas@gmail.com

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