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 publishers, 12 editions, 2012-2018. – 181 pp, 207 pp.

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.

Selected translations

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