15min The selection of books of the year takes place in three stages. Now until October 20, readers can vote and choose, in their opinion, the most valuable books published during the year. Later, a panel of experts will vote on the 5 books with the most votes from readers in each category. So, when choosing the winner, 50% readers will decide, 50 percent experts.
The winners will be announced at an official ceremony at the Open books festival on October 26.
YOU CAN VOTE IN THE ELECTIONS HERE
J.G.Ballard „Aukštnamis“
Publisher: Lapas
Translator: Marius Burokas
15min photo/JGBallard “High house”
in 1975 The first dystopia follows Dr. Robert Laing, who moves into an exclusive high-rise, a building where it’s easy to forget the outside world exists. This book is a social-architectural experiment that allows you to study the psychology of people in a closed environment. The author provocatively uses architecture as a social engineering tool. in 2015 director Ben Wheatley made a movie of the same name based on this book.
Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
Publisher: Rara
Translator: Valdas V. Petrauskas
15min photo/Jorge Luis Borges “Fictions”
This is the first collection of short stories by the Argentine prose master, in which he sparingly and elegantly explores various paradoxes, mysteries and misunderstandings of the universe, always returning to themes and motifs that will not give him peace for the rest of his life: time, eternity, infinity. Sixteen short stories reveal the author’s unbridled imagination, the infinite capacity of his creativity and his incomparable intellectual capacity. JLBorges’ ironic look in the collection mocks the futile efforts of countless generations of thinkers to understand the universe.
JMCoetzee “Poland”
Leidykla: “Sofoklis”
Translator: Nijolė Regina Chijenienė
15min photo/JMCoetzee “Poland”
The work, full of psychological insights into the impermanence of human relationships, tells the story of the Polish pianist Witold Walczykiewicz, an energetic and “extravagant white-haired man” who has lost his head for Beatrice, an elegant art patron from Barcelona. Creating an obvious allusion to the work of Dante Alighieri and the real-life love story of George Sand and Frederic Chopin, JMCoetzee connects reality with fiction and tells an insightful, poignant and delicate story that explores the complex relationship between conflicting personalities.
Annie Ernaux „Metai“
Publisher: “Balto Lankos”
Translator: Greta Štikelytė
15min photo/Annie Ernaux “Years”
The author’s work is considered by many to be her magnum opus. It deals with French history from 1941-2006 and history in general from a personal perspective. Through fragments of everyday life – past and present impressions, memories, descriptive photos or TV shows, quotations from newspapers, songs or books, language and cultural habits – the author puts together literary vignettes of the past and thus captures the passage of time. Speaking not from an “I” but from a “we” perspective, she writes a collective autobiography of those who experienced that time.
Alasdair Gray „Lanarkas“
Publisher: Balta lanka
Translator: Laimantas Jonušys
15min nuotr./Alasdair Gray „Lanarkas“
Set in the surreal city of Untanko, which does not see the light of day, and the realistic pre-war Glasgow, this post-modern vision of hell tells the intertwined lives of protagonists Lanark and Duncan Tov. It is a dreamlike work of frenetic play and imagination about humanity’s inability to love and its relentless quest to be loved. The work, first published in 1981, made the author one of the most important writers in the United Kingdom and contributed significantly to the renaissance of Scottish literature.
Tine Hoeg „Room tour“
Publisher: Rara
Translator: Ieva Toleikytė
15min note/Tine Hoeg „Tour de chambre“
The plot of the novel revolves around 33-year-old Asta, who, while preparing a manuscript about a little-known Polish sculptor, begins to write a much more personal story about living in a dormitory during her studies. Parties, jokes, ambitions, naked passion and admiration for art are intertwined here. A lively and witty novel by a contemporary Danish writer explores creativity, lust, friendship and their conflictual relationship with a cozy, yet penetrating look.
Juhani Karila “The Spell of the Pike”
Publisher: “Goldfish”
Translator: Urtė Liepuoniūtė
15min photo/Juhani Karila “Spell of Pike”
A novel full of action, humor and virtuosic language, a love story, a mythological fantasy, a comedy, and at the same time a merciless, albeit cruelly presented, critique of our nature-destroying way of life. It is a story that recreates the mythology not only of Lapland, but also of the whole of Finland, mocking the exoticism associated with the north and showing why it is really impossible not to fall in love with this land. The book became real in 2019. Finnish literary sensation, won the recognition of both readers and critics.
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa „Gatopardas“
Publisher: “Balto Lankos”
Translator: Lina Gaučytė
15min photo/Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa “Gatopardas”
in 1958 published and still appreciated, the classic work of Italian literature speaks with gentle, ironic nostalgia about the traditions of the past era, embodied by the once great Sicilian family and its last representative. The author of the book became famous with his only posthumously published novel, Gatopardas. This is a new translation of the book into Lithuanian prepared according to the 2012 published version of the novel with a foreword by the author’s stepson, an afterword and additional fragments of the novel.
Ian McEwan „Pamokos“
Publisher: Tyto Alba
Translator: Gabrielė Gailiūtė-Bernotienė
15min photo/Ian McEwan “Lessons”
The latest work of the famous English writer, which has received great attention from critics and readers around the world. This is a novel for those who miss rich literature, where the author skillfully reveals the personal experiences of one person against the background of the great events of the past century. At the same time, it is a work about loss, coming to terms with circumstances and, in some cases, helplessness, but also about love, values and what remains, even when the whole world inevitably changes. 8 books of the author have already been published in Lithuanian.
Fernanda Melchor „Paradais“
Publisher: Rara
Translator: Eglė Naujokaittė
15min note/Fernanda Melchor „Paradise“
A novel that dissects the dark side of Mexican society and painfully witnesses how lust can become obsessive, malevolent and dangerous. This book, dubbed by critics as a “descent into hell”, is arranged like an explosion in time, where class inequality, misogyny, machismo and frustration pervade every page – down to the last sentence, down to the chilling atomaz. This is the second book of the Mexican author in Lithuanian.
Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima
Publisher: “Balto Lankos”
Translator: Gabija Čepulionytė
15min photo/Yukio Mishima “Spring Snow”
This is the first novel of the Tetralogy “Sea of Fertility”. The four novels tell the story of one soul’s four reincarnations – into an aristocrat, a nationalist extremist, a Thai princess and a sadistic orphan. At the same time, it is the story of Shigekuni Honda and his efforts in different reincarnations of his own soul to save each of them from an early death, which in Buddhist teaching is understood as karmic fate. After this tetralogy, the author committed ritual suicide by sepuku.
Georges Perec “Life is a user manual”
Publisher: Lapas
Translator: Akvilė Melkūnaitė
15min photo/Georges Perec “Life as a user manual”
in 1978 the resulting work is the longest and most complex novel by a French author, often compared to James Joyce’s Ulysses, and included in the list of the 100 most significant books of the century by the French daily Le Monde. in 1978 the novel won the Prix Médicis award. The novel consists of hundreds of stories that reveal the genius and bordering on the absurd ambitions, passions, successes and failures of people, and touch on the most diverse areas: anthropology, witchcraft, family disputes, experimental cuisine, the sale of second-hand goods and many others.
Bartosz Polonski “Robčikas”
Slinktys Publishing House
Translator: Evelina Bondar
15min photo/Bartosz Polonski “Robčikas”
In this novel, the characters speak in slang that combines elements of Slavic, Lithuanian and English languages. It is language in the book that is the most important tool for the expression of identity. Darek, a Polish schoolboy, from whose perspective the story is presented, tries to earn money and help his loved ones, and therefore encounters the criminal world. It is also written about his romantic adventures, acquaintance with the scout community, members of various subcultures. The novel is characterized by psychologically strong characters. The book published in Poland received positive reviews.
Olga Tokarczuk “Empulsions”
Publisher: Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishing House
Translator: Vyturys Jarutis
15min photo/Olga Tokarczuk “Empusions”
This is the first work of a Polish author written after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. In this novel, the author reveals to the readers the truth about the world, which we either do not notice or do not want to admit that it exists. There are many layers to this novel, but even with a close reading it’s hard to see them all at once. The most important thing is to find something for yourself in the book, reflect on the thought you are interested in, apply it to yourself and thus look at yourself in the mirror of modernity.
Shuang Xuetao’s “Red Street”
Publisher: Rara
Translator: Indė Balčikonytė-Huang
15min photo/Shuang Xuetao “Red Street”
Three short stories by a Chinese writer are published in the book. All of these stories relate to the real Red Street, which spirals around the outskirts of Shenyang, the author’s hometown in China’s harsh northeast. During Mao Zedong’s time, industry, factories and mines flourished here, but as the country transitioned to a market economy, the population, left to their own devices, faced the adversities that prevailed in Shenyang, which could not withstand the changes – unemployment, poverty, alcoholism, violence. It was on Raudonis Street that orphans, criminals, heretics and demigods began to appear – all who were unable to adapt to China’s modernization.
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