an exiled Lithuanian poet named Antanas Garšva who, like Škėma himself, works as an elevator operator in New York. The author examines alienation, trauma and creativity through the character of Garšva and his tragic experiences that ultimately lead to madness. While the immediate action lasts little more than a day, through the memories the story covers Garšva's whole life from early childhood, via the inter-war period, the occupations and refugee camps in Europe to the new life in the US. The novel is partly autobiographical. Antanas Škėma uses the innovative (for Lithuanian literature) stream of consciousness narrative to great effect, creating entirely his own style. The novel is defined by irony, occasional surrealism, unexpected metaphor, acute stylistic contrasts where lyrical and aesthetically delicate confessions suddenly give way to coarse, cynical images, and a broad spectrum of intertextual cultural allusions. On the technical level, the author often plays with the sounds of words, disengaging phonemes from their literal meaning, and also expresses the cultural clash through the Americanization of language. Originally printed by an emigré Lithuanian publishing house in London as Nida Book Club series edition (Nidos Knygų Klubo leidinys. no. 23.), Balta drobulė was released in Lithuania in 1990. Since then, it has been translated and published in Estonian (1992), Latvian (2000), English (2017), as White Shroud, and German (2017), as Das weiße Leintuch. His short story Izaokas (Isaak) was made into a major motion picture of the same name in 2019. References External links Short story "Steps and Stairs" The English translation of "White Shroud" The German translation of "White Shroud" ("Das weiße Leintuch") 1910 births 1961 deaths 20th-century dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Lithuanian male actors 20th-century novelists Lithuanian dramatists and playwrights Lithuanian emigrants to the United States Lithuanian male stage actors Lithuanian male writers Lithuanian novelists Road incident deaths in Pennsylvania Vytautas Magnus University alumni