Vanda Juknaitė (1949) debuted in 1983. She was not particularly prolific as a fiction writer: one collection of short stories and two novels, and not very long at that. In her fiction, she shows clear signs of an unusual sensitivity to human sadness, pain and misery, and was particularly interested in examining the situation of women at various stages of their lives. However, in the first decade of independence, she took a much more hands-on approach in doing her part for the new state and society, and became a very active worker and organiser of various social projects, first and foremost with street children. This inspired her to write again, but in a different way. Her later books are essays and interviews about the social reality and its various tender spots. However, as they are written by a true writer, they also have literary merit.

Tariamas iš tamsos: pokalbiai su vaikais (My Voice Betrays Me). Vilnius: Lithuanian Writers’ Union publishers, 2 editions, 2007, 2012. – 175 pp.

The book is essentially a collection of interviews with children of various ages who live difficult lives. They are mentally or physically disabled, delinquent, or parentless. In an interview, the author confessed that it took ten years to find this approach. She had wanted to write about what she saw in her social work, but could not find the way to do it. So she decided to allow the children to speak for themselves. And they are a surprise, both to the author and the reader. They are asked difficult, challenging questions, but they are not shy about answering. And their answers are both unexpectedly deep and wise, but also incredibly hopeful and life-affirming. While the idea could seem to some tastes rather sentimental, the book is a worthy achievement in a decade of a worthy life.

Selected translations

Hebrew: Nehega be-Chashecha (נהגה בחשכה). Translated by Sivan Beskin. Ramat ha-Sharon: Asia Publishers, 2011

English: My Voice Betrays Me. Translated by Laima Sruoginis. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007