Regimantas Dima (born 1961) did not become a published writer until his 50s. Before then, besides his day job in large businesses, he was one of the most popular local bloggers. This is how he developed his persona: a sarcastic public character who observes the peculiarities of modern life, with a flare for nostalgia for the values and virtues of the past. “I really miss manly literature nowadays. Something about a man who works according to his plan,” he says in an interview. The material that he chose for his two historical novels is clearly the case in point. His publishers dubbed him “the Lithuanian Dumas”, partly playing on his name, but also aptly describing his take on both history and literature. Old-fashioned adventures are definitely the main focus and attraction in his books, but at the same time, historical research is meticulous, and the author’s talent to find a little-known fascinating figure and bring him to the limelight is enviable. 

Vilniaus plovas (The Vilnius Pilaf). Vilnius: Tyto alba, 2015, – 253 pp. 

Jonas Prosperas Vitkevičius (Jan Prosper Witkiewicz, 1808-1839) seems to have lived three or four lives in his short time. Born in Kražiai, which is now in Lithuania, he belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian nobility and already in high school became involved in covert attempts to promote nationalist ideas in the hope of restoring the Polish-Lithuanian independence from the Russian empire. In fact, his youthful activities and the harsh punishment for that is described by Adam Mickiewicz in Dziady. Deported from his homeland, with family ties severed, young Witkiewicz ends up deep in the Asian steppe country, first as a prisoner, then as a soldier, until eventually he becomes a diplomat and, apparently, a spy. The author says the book is 90-95 per cent true, as he only had to imagine a few lines of dialogue that could not have been documented: the character and his life was so fascinating that nothing needed to be embellished or fictionalized.