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. Then, a panel of experts will vote on the 5 books with the most readers’ votes 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
Mantas Adomėnas, “Coin & Labyrinth” (Parts I and II)
Publisher: “Balto Lankos”
15 min photo/Mantas Adomėnas “Coin & Labyrinth” (Parts I and II)
As soon as the author’s dilogy was published, it was a great success, the book was reprinted several times, and the books were already translated into foreign languages. The former vice minister of foreign affairs, who wrote two spy novels, tells readers about intelligence operations in Lithuania that lead to modern-day Russia. The book is written both realistically and gives pleasure to those who like spy and adventure novels.
Bernardas Gailius, “Agent”
Publisher: “Goldfish”
15min photo/Bernardas Gailius “Agent”
The novel takes you to interwar Kaunas, sparkling with contrasts, whose dark alleys and chic interiors, the folds of fashionable suits and the glances of lustful eyes lurked with great desires and deadly dangers. The author’s first novel “The smell of blood” (2022) attracted great interest from readers and was awarded the Vincas Krėvės-Mickevičius literary prize.
Gabija Grušaitė, “Mushroom Dream”
Publisher: “Lapas”
15 min photo/Gabija Grušaitė “Mushroom dream”
This is a novel about people lost in their inner labyrinths. Upė, Ina, and the Norwegian restaurant chef Karlas, thirty-five-year-old women who have built successful lives in the eyes of the public, really live in the prisons of their minds. The three parts of the novel, which take place in 2051 and 2025, are connected by New York scientist Dustin Carter and his path to the Olympus of recognition. This novel is a seven-year-old author’s study of the paradoxical nature of human consciousness.
Almis Grybauskas, “Rites in the Observatory”
Publisher: Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishing House
15 min photo/Almis Grybauskas “Rites in the observatory”
In this book of short prose, there are stories whose action is more internal, as realistic as imagined, in others, on the contrary, more external, action-oriented stories related to rituals of various origins. The book’s texts use elements of fairy tales, (pseudo)historicism, and magical fiction. Stylistically, the focus is not so much on linguistic expression, tropes, but rather on the fable, action and its dynamics, trying to awaken the reader’s imagination, to create analogies with archetypal characters and plots.
Benas Lastauskas, “For those who don’t read”
Publisher: “Laisvės TV”
15 min photo/Benas Lastauskas “For those who don’t read”
This is a story about people we might meet at a bar on a Friday night, at a gym or while waiting in line at a fast food stand. Maybe it’s our childhood friends or old classmates, or maybe even ourselves or our young adult children. The blogger’s first book, written in well-recognizable jargon, without avoiding organic and sometimes extremely rough slang, attracts with authentic dialogues and unexpected plot twists. However, at first glance, the light-hearted story raises questions about the social, emotional life and addictions of a modern young person, and becomes like a subjective anthropological study of the author.
Sigitas Parulskis, “How I threw”
Publisher: Alma littera
15 min photo/Sigitas Parulskis “How I threw”
As the laureate of the National Culture and Art Prize himself says, this book is about a man who decided to quit smoking, and this decision takes him very far: to the past, to memory, to a journey of melancholic and joyful experiences, to the journey of imagination that sometimes exceeds the limits of decency: “And you want to to invite others on this journey, no matter how selfish I may be.” The writer’s collection includes 20 books, which have been translated into Latvian, Finnish, Italian, Polish, Czech, French, German, Greek, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian, English and other languages.
Sara Poisson, Taste of This Life
Publisher: Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishing House
15 min photo/Sara Poisson “The taste of this life”
Multi-layered work, novel-autofiction, dystopian narrative. The circumstances of the action of the work resemble an ecological catastrophe. The three main characters of the book live in conditions of limited freedom, reminiscent of a social experiment. The narrative is characterized by a critical approach to things that many take for granted, including food culture. Various phenomena, relationships or objects in the novel are pulled out of the usual cultural shell, pulled out of comfortable shells. The novel teases, provokes, and at the same time reflects, aestheticizes, sanctifies the “taste of this life” in an original way.
Undinė Radzevičiūtė, “Dangerous Words”
Publisher: Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishing House
15 min photo/Undinė Radzevičiūtė “Dangerous words”
The ninth book of the laureate of the European Union Literature Prize is a metaphor for modern culture. “The novel “Dangerous Words” is a dangerous satire. For the author and the reader. One of the most important motives of this work is the aspect of political correctness, which encourages us to ask whether we can always and in all areas rely on it unconditionally, without critical thinking. U. Radzevičiūtė’s work shows how, guided by universal, modern trends, we can turn an otherwise extremely positive thing into fashion, a shell of emptiness, reach absurdity,” reviewer Lina Buividavičiūtė says about the work in his review.
Kastytis Sarnickas, „Travel, journey“
Publisher: Lapas
15min photo/Kastytis Sarnickas “Voyage, voyage”
The author is well known to Lithuanians as Kastetas from the group “G&G Sindikatas”, and his debut novel “Turnė” captivated readers with its painfully accurate humor. Voyage, Voyage is his second novel, in which we meet Guola again with Piggy from the non-existent cult rock band Crankshaft. It is also a story about the life of musicians, a story about friendship and how difficult it is to open up to another person.
Dalia Staponkutė, “Vivat Regina!”
Publisher: Apostrophe
15 min photo/Dalia Staponkutė, “Vivat Regina!”
The novel of parallel stories juxtaposes the lives of two women, political figures – Catherine Kornar, Queen of Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia (1454-1510) and Barbora Radvilaitė, Grand Duchess of Lithuania and Queen of Poland (~1522-1551) – at the dawn of the European Renaissance. The choice of this form of the novel was prompted by the parallel biographies written by the Greek philosopher Plutarch. Real historical facts and names are mentioned in the novel, but the connections between them and the dialogues are the author’s ingenuity.
Alvydas Šlepikas, “The house across the river”
Publisher: Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishing House
15 min photo/Alvydas Šlepikas “The house across the river”
This is a collection of seven short stories. It explores themes of separation, liberation, escape from guilt. The writer combines a realistic narrative, full of precise details, with a dreamy mood, fantastic images, and the mystery characteristic of fairy tales. The author’s work has been awarded literary prizes in Lithuania and abroad.
Jurga Vilė and Miglė Anušauskaitė, “Meko sodas. About Jonas Mekas, inspirations and plast”
Publisher: “Goldfish”
15 min photo/Jurga Vilė and Miglė Anušauskaitė “Meko garden. About Jonas Mekas, inspirations and plast”
In its original form and content, the comic intertwines fiction and documentary, memories and reflections on Jonah Mekas, influences, inspirations and fulfillments. The comic tells how Mona, a girl from Lithuania, flies to New York, dreaming of meeting the poet and filmmaker Jonas Mekas. The very next day, he meets him in the archive of avant-garde films. Mona starts volunteering here, and when she hears about the sunken island, once given to John, she comes up with the idea of raising it and replanting it. The garden does not take long to grow. Alive not only with memories, but also with daily creative energy.
Mikalojus Vilutis, “Intelligence”
Publisher: Tyto Alba
15 min photo/Mikalojus Vilutis “Intelligence”
The artist, graphic designer is well known as a creator of prints, drawings, and illustrations, but the artist’s activity is not limited to images. He is also a master of words, the author of essay books “Cake” and “Soup”. His latest book is the artist’s reflections on life and death, everyday life and the wisdom that comes at the end of life, but much more often – about situations when no wisdom ever comes, and a person remains alone and vulnerable. At the same time, it is a testimony of a person who looks critically at others and, above all, at himself.
Kotryna Zylė, “My beloved bones”
Publisher: “Goldfish”
15 min photo/Kotryna Zylė “My beloved bones”
This novel is the life story of a woman who keeps the bones of three men in her section of the house. In the atmospheric work, enriched with magical reality, the everyday life of the sleeping areas and the folklore of the village are intertwined. The time of the novel is undefined, it is assumed, and the way of telling is reminiscent of a ritual shroud, in which the most important events, feelings, memories, flashes of dark humor and coarse language are wrapped, the themes of relationships, loyalty, superstitions, and humanity are explored.
Darius Žiura, “Diseris”
Other Books Publishing House
15min photo/Darius Žiura “Diseris”
Autobiographical prose in which the documentary reality is revealed through a personal narrative: life in the Vilnius squats in the nineties, work in the streets of Paris, his transformations as an artist, the atmosphere of the art scene at that time. The author captures the rave culture coming to Lithuania, the Vilnius station district of 2,000 people, reflects on cultural phenomena and ideas, his experience in communicating with people living outside the norms, radical near-death states.
#15minute #selection #books #year #fiction #books #Lithuanian #authors #eligible #award #Culture
