Photo by Laura Vansevičienė

Kotryna Zylė is a writer, illustrator, designer, and author of seven books. She has received multiple awards for her books and is well known to readers of Lithuanian children’s literature. A distinctive feature of her creative work is her incorporation of Lithuanian folklore and mythology within modern life. “Mylimi kaulai” (Beloved Bones) is her first novel for adults.

       Mylimi kaulai (Beloved Bones). Illustrated by Bernardas Burba. Vilnius: Aukso žuvys, 2024. – 188 p. English sample translation available

“Mylimi kaulai” (Beloved Bones) is the life story of Ona, who keeps the bones of her three men in her closet at home, encompassing 63 years of her life. It is a coming-of-age and love novel infused with Lithuanian mythology, unfolding in the landscapes of modern-day Vilnius apartment blocks where livestock is kept in flats and tended by shepherds, where a communal sauna exists in the building’s basement, and misfortunes are resolved by the wisewoman Motė. It is a marvellous world of ancient rituals and an agrarian worldview, yet existing in contemporary times. The novel is ingeniously structured to reveal the most important relationships in Ona’s life: with her father; her neighbour Lukas; Motė, the building’s highest authority; and Mikas, the husband Ona won in a lottery who became the greatest love of her life, and who made her “behind-the-ears burst out in sprouts”. It is a story about how love, and the despair that feeds on its loss, “find their own ways and tools”: this is precisely how the bones of her beloved husband come to rest behind the glass in Ona’s closet. Although mythology and nature’s primordial essence are foregrounded in the novel, it is subtly permeated by the Soviet legacy, inseparable from life in a standard apartment block, and overcast with the shadows of the present day: the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine. The novel captivates us with its vivid imagery, unique metaphors, and lively, ironic, and aptly witty language.

Read English sample translation

Contact for rights: sigita@auksozuvys.lt

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